Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.
Angel in Disguise
10. Riku, Kairi, and Roxas: Decisions
That was it. I had had enough. Sora was pissed at me because Kairi was avoiding us, I knew that Roxas knew that we were all hiding something from him, and Squall knows about Sora and I. We had to do something about it.
I panicked when I got the phone call from Squall. And once I hung up the phone after talking to him, my panic turned to disbelief. How could Sora tell Squall without me there with him? I did feel a little bad for him though, considering that he had to face both Squall and Cloud at the same time on his own.
After Squall called me I hoped that I would soon hear from Sora, since it sounded like Sora did want to talk to me.
I wasn't disappointed.
I was laying on my bed doing some last minute Physics homework when someone knocked on my door. I knew it wasn't my brothers since they would have just barged right into the room. And they were off doing something outside of the house for once, so it couldn't have been them. I also knew it wasn't my parents, since my dad was off at Radiant Gardens doing something business related and my mom was working late on the main land like usual. That meant it was either the maid, Sora, or Kairi.
It was Sora.
My pencil fell from my hands when he opened the door and I looked at him in surprise. I had really thought that I would be the one who would go talk to him first, not the other way around. I was happy though, since it meant not having to face Roxas just then.
"Sora, what--"
"I'm sorry." Sora interrupted me.
I was taken aback by the apology. Did Kairi talk to him or did he figure things out on his own? Kairi was gone so he couldn't have talked to her and I very greatly doubted that he figured it out on his own. What was he sorry about, exactly? Was it that he overreacted or was it something entirely different? Did he know that it was all just a big misunderstanding?
"I should have let you explain." Sora said when I remained silent. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that." He looked at me sadly. "Please say something, Riku. Please." He begged.
"Sora… It's not your fault." I said as I got off of my bed. "It's my fault too. I didn't try to stay and explain things. I didn't try to call you the next day to explain things either. I didn't even call you to tell you that Kairi and Naminé were going to the main land for a few days."
Sora looked at me in surprise. "How do you know that?"
I quickly explained to him how I had gone over to Kairi's house to get things cleared up and how she told me about her pen pal and that she was going to visit him and that she was taking Naminé with her. Sora listened to me and asked a question here and there, but was otherwise quiet.
"She should be back today." I said. "Maybe we could go visit her. Then we can all three sit down and talk and we can ask her how her trip went." I suggested, hoping that he would say yes.
Sora brightened up when he heard my idea. "Lets go! Hey, you think I could act all angry and make her think I'm really made at her for not telling me where she was going?"
I chuckled. "Sora, you know as well as I do that you could never act like you were mad at Kairi. You would end up smiling and giving your act away." I walked over to him and affectionately ruffled his hair, grinning when he smacked my hand away. "Come on, Sora. Lets go call Kairi."
"Okay!" Sora chirped. "Hey, Riku, can I drive your car?"
I didn't even have to think about the answer to that question. "No, Sora." I said. "I still remember what you did to your poor Firebird. You are not going to ever drive my Loremo." I told him as we walked out of my room and down the hall.
Sora pouted. "Aww, come on, Riku. I'll be careful!"
"Absolutely not." I refused. "I wouldn't even trust you to park my baby." I said as we started to walk down the stairs.
"Meanie." Sora muttered. "I wouldn't hurt it by just moving it a few feet."
"Sora, need I remind you about the time that Kairi had you move her Mazda a few feet?" I asked. "Do you remember that the next time she tried to start up her car, it took her five times of trying to crank it before it would actually start? We still don't know what happened to make it do that. You and cars just don't mix." I teased him, which made him pout again.
"That wasn't my fault. Her car just didn't like me, that's all." Sora said.
I rolled my eyes as we came to the bottom of the stairs. Then I walked over to the small table we had the phone on and picked up the phone.
"Can I call her?" Sora asked me eagerly. "It feels like ages since I last talked to her!"
I raised an eyebrow. It's been three days." I told him as I handed him the phone.
Sora stuck him tongue out at me and then quickly dialed Kairi's number. He danced out of my reach when I tried to tickle him for sticking his tongue out at me.
"Kairi?" He asked, turning his full attention to the phone conversation. "Hey! Riku says you've been over on the main land visiting some pen pal or something."
I smirked. That was my chance. With all of his attention on his conversation with Kairi I could easily sneak over to him and tickle him. I moved slowly, trying not to get his attention, until I was within arms reach. Then I simply reached out and began tickling him.
Sora shrieked and nearly dropped the phone on the wood floor. For a moment I felt bad for Kairi since Sora had just yelled in her ear. My pity for her soon dissipated as Sora told her that he and I would be over soon and then he hung up and set the phone back on the table. I gulped when he looked at me with eyes that promised revenge.
"Ah, Sora, can we talk this over?" I asked hopefully. I started backing up slowly as Sora started walking toward me. I knew then that words would not deter Sora, so I took off running, hoping that I could outrun him.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten that he was on the track team at school (somehow) and could run much faster than I could. I ended up being tackled to the ground by him and, as I fell down, I thought about how glad I was that he waited until we were on the soft living room carpet instead of on the hardwood floor that most of the other rooms had.
"Gotcha." Sora said triumphantly.
"Do you?" I asked breathlessly. "And now that you have me, what are you going to do with me?'
Sora seemed to think about it for a moment before he grinned and leaned down and kissed me.
Once again, life was perfect.
'Well that was interesting.' I thought as I hung up the phone after talking to Sora. I brushed it off as something normal and then walked sleepily back upstairs to my room, hoping that Naminé had finished getting dressed.
We had gotten back from Twilight Town early that morning and both of us were exhausted. We had stayed up late the night before hanging out with Pence and his two friends Olette and Hayner. And after hanging out at their usual spot, Naminé and I went with Olette to her house, which was where we were staying, and spent nearly the entire night talking.
It's hard to tell the time in Twilight Town! I mean, it's always sunset there and unless you've lived there for a while you really can't tell the time by looking outside. It is beautiful there, though. I would love to live there.
Anyway, after staying up almost all night, it was little wonder that Naminé and I were exhausted. We could barely even get dressed properly that morning. I felt lucky enough that I managed to get a shirt and pants on properly, ignoring the fact that my pants were, in fact pajama pants with little clouds on them, and that my shirt was black with a devil smiley on it.
Naminé was a little better off, although she was wearing her shirt inside out and backwards. We're still not sure how she managed to pull that one off.
I got up the stairs, only tripping one, and barely remembered to knock on the bedroom door instead of opening it and going right in.
"Come in." Naminé said.
I opened the door and walked in only to stop abruptly and look at Naminé in surprise. She wasn't wearing her usual white dress, but a new outfit that she got when we went over to Sunset Terrace, which is in Twilight Town.
It was in the same general style as her usual; white dress, except it was layered and the bottom of the skirt had a larger scalloped edge and had cut out stars above each of the rounded edges. The other layer was a pale blue color and underneath of that was a dark blue layer done in the same style as the outer, except the sleeves were designed to lay off the shoulders.
"Wow, Naminé." I breathed. "You look- wow." I was speechless. I couldn't even begin to tell her how beautiful she looked.
She seemed to understand though, since she blushed and self consciously smoothed out the skirt. "Do you," She hesitated a moment and looked over at me. "Do you think that Roxas will like it?"
I was momentarily taken aback by the question. And then I grinned and hurried across the room to grab her hand and pull her over to my bed so we could sit and talk.
"When did you realize you liked him?" I asked excitedly.
Naminé blushed. "A few days ago." She admitted. "I was talking to my friend Marluxia and I asked him why he thought I was in love with Roxas."
I raised an eyebrow. "So you had talked to him about this before then?"
Naminé nodded. "Uh-huh. It was the day that Sora asked us to follow Roxas. I got upset when I saw him and Axel together so I went to the park hoping I'd find something to draw so I could distract myself. He was out grocery shopping and cut through the park on his way home and ran into me. I didn't really believe him when he asked me if I was in love with Roxas. Actually, it was more like he was telling me that I am in love with Roxas." She sighed. "I told him I wasn't, although I don't think he really believed me."
"You know, you could have come to me and talked to me about this." I told her. "You didn't have to go find Marluxia to talk to him."
"I didn't want to trouble you." She said. "And… I knew that you were all confused about Sora and Riku. And Marluxia was just there and I couldn't help but talk to him. He gives such good advice."
I briefly considered talking to him about my own problems, but I quickly dismissed that. Marluxia was nice, but I wouldn't have felt comfortable talking to him. I barely knew him.
"I still wish you had told me before now." I told her. "Oh well, better a little late than never. Now," I got up from my bed and looked her over. "It's missing something. Maybe… a belt?" I snapped my fingers and hurried over to my closet and went inside, stumbling over some of the clothes laying on the floor. I made a mental note to clean up the mess later. I quickly retrieved my hanger of blue belts and carried it over to Naminé. I quickly compared all of the dark blue ones to the dark blue on her dress until I found three that matched. I soon discarded the sequined one, so then I had a plain belt and a thin one with a pouch attached.
"Which one?" I asked her, holding them up for her to see.
She looked at them for a moment and then pointed to the one with the pouch. "That one."
I grinned and tossed the plain one aside and then motioned for Naminé to stand up. When she did, I expertly clipped it around her waist and then stood back to admire the effect. "Perfect." I said, pleased. "Roxas won't be able to keep his eye off of you."
Naminé blushed, which wasn't much of a surprise. It was so easy to make her blush. And it was fun too.
Her blush suddenly darkened and for a moment I wondered why. But then I heard, "Wow, Naminé, you look pretty."
I turned around to see Sora and Riku standing in my bedroom doorway. Riku looked like he was trying his hardest to not laugh at something and Sora was looking at me with a confused expression on his face.
"Nice outfit, Kai." Riku said, unable to hide his amusement any longer.
I looked down at what I was wearing and had to fight back an embarrassed blush. I was still wearing my pajama pants and the black t-shirt. I decided to play it off and I struck a pose. "Like what you see, boys?" I asked teasingly. "This is going to be part of my new wardrobe."
Riku started to laugh, knowing that I was joking, which made Sora even more confused.
"It looks like you got dressed in the dark." Riku remarked. "I hope you didn't go out into public dressed like that."
"Actually, I did." I said. "I think it greatly amused our ferry driving, along with Pence and his friends. And I'm sure that it'll be used as a nice piece of blackmail in the future, considering that Pence got a few pictures of us before we realized what he was doing."
Riku smirked. "I suppose we should be glad that you managed to put your underwear on under your clothes this time."
That time I did blush. "Hey! I was five!" I said heatedly. "And it's not like I wore them on my head like Sora did!"
It was Sora's turn to blush that time.
We spent the next hour or so teasing each other about past wardrobe malfunctions. And then Roxas got brought into our conversation and things got more serious.
"You guys need to tell Roxas." I said seriously. "You said that Squall and Cloud know, right? And that Cloud figured it out on his own? Roxas is a lot like Cloud. Even if you don't tell him, he will find out."
"I know." Sora said. "Will you guys go with us? That was we won't back out or anything."
I looked at them in surprise. Did they really want us to go along? Were they finally ready to tell Roxas about them? Sora seemed pretty sure of it and Riku looked uneasy, which wasn't too surprising. After all, if Roxas would be at all angry about it, although I really doubted that he'd be angry, but his rage would have been directed at Riku, not at Sora.
"We'll go with you." Naminé told them.
I nodded and agreed with her and soon we were getting in Riku's car and driving over to Sora and Roxas's house.
I hoped that Roxas wouldn't take it too hard.
I got off the phone feeling happier than I had in days. Axel had finally called me back and had invited me over. He, Larxene, and Demyx had plans to go to the mainland that day and he wanted me to go with them. I had agreed without a second thought.
I walked around the house in a daze, trying to find my wallet. I was always losing that thing. Although most of the time I would find it in the pocket of the pants I had worn a day or two before, there was one instance in which I found it in the refrigerator.
I finally found it, buried underneath a pile of letters and bills on the island table in the kitchen. I was getting ready to walk out the door when Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Naminé walked into the kitchen. I had to do a double take when I saw them, but it wasn't because of how quiet they were being or because of what Kairi was wearing. (which I later found out was pajama pants and a shirt that Tidus had got her for her birthday one year.)
It was Naminé. She looked beautiful. I mean, she always looked beautiful, but that day she looked as if she were glowing. I didn't have time to compliment her on it or to continue stare at her in awe.
"Roxas, I- well, that is, me and Riku - we have something to tell you." Sora said, making me take my eyes off of Naminé.
What he said next I will never forget. I only regret that I panicked the way I did.
"Riku and I are dating."
In that moment, every thought in my head ground to a shrieking halt and then slammed straight into panic mode while I gaped at Sora. Within seconds all of the panic crashed down on me and I did the one - very stupid - thing I was capable of doing.
I ran.
End Chapter
.
