Stranger Than Fiction
Chapter Thirteen:
Ice Cream Cake
Author's Note:
Well, it's chapter thirteen and can I just say… I love you guys… Enough to create some little thank you certificates just like the fortune cookies I gave you! Aren't you special.
Please make sure you scan the attachments, I don't want to be held responsible for a virus on your computer.
This chapter's gift is a surprise (a good one) so be good and review!!!
I co-wrote this chapter with my cousin. I wrote some, she wrote some. It's a little more humorous (random) than I usually write, enjoy!
Disclaimer:
I don't own Kingdom Hearts nor any of the characters.
Sora watched Riku, jealously. He wasn't sure, but he could have sworn that the boy had just flashed a grin at Kairi… Huh? Why the hell are you jealous Sora?
"What you lookin' so murderous for?" Yuffie asked, sitting down beside him. Sora jumped and glared at her.
"Whoa, if looks could kill, eh? What's the matter with you? Where's darling cheery Sora?" Yuffie asked. Sora shrugged, and went back to staring at Riku and Kairi. Yuffie followed his gaze.
"Oh, right…" She said, softly. He was a little surprised that Yuffie left then, and didn't tease him. She could be a bigger pain than his sister about that kind of thing, but…
"Oh c'mon Kairi, everyone has dreams!" Riku protested. Sora's mouth set in a thin line.
"Not me," She replied stubbornly. Riku sighed.
"You must have. Let's see, I had a dream last night about… actually, I'm not going to tell you that one…" Riku looked away, looking straight at Sora. Embarrassed at getting caught staring, Sora got up, walking out of the classroom.
What am I doing? So what? Riku can be friends with Kairi, what do I care?
Damn! I do care!!!!
"Sora!" Riku called. Don't look round, don't you dare look round. Sora? SORA?!
"Uh-huh?" Sora turned around. Stupid…
"What's the matter?" Riku asked. Hm… Let's see… I'm jealous that you're spending time with Kairi… Why? How the hell should I know?
"Nothing, nothing…" Sora replied, the fake smile came easily, but he should have known better. Riku saw through it as though it were made of glass. Sora forced himself to drop the smile. Sure, he was miserable, but did that mean he had to force Riku to be too? He was happy flirting with Kairi…
"Is it something to do with me? Have I done something wrong?" Riku asked. Sora didn't know what to reply. If anything, it was him being jealous. Riku hadn't done anything wrong, he'd simply talked to Kairi.
He simply liked Kairi. So that's the root of it is it? You like Kairi? Or is it Riku you like? You're such a loser Sora. You had a chance with both of them, but you screwed it all to hell…
"No, it's me. I'm just… Messed up at the moment…" Sora explained. Riku hesitantly reached forward, taking Sora's hand.
"I'm here if you wanna talk, okay?" He gave Sora's hand a gentle squeeze and walked away. Sora was too scared of his own feelings to call him back.
Riku leaned against the wall. What had got into him recently? Sure, Riku had flirted with Kairi, but that was just to… Well, there was no reason really, he just did it. Who could blame him really? With his looks and charms… Riku sniggered to himself.
So Sora liked Kairi then… Typical…
I never thought it would hurt this much…
"Hiya!" Selphie bounced up to him. Riku wasn't sure if he had the patience or the energy to talk to Sora's sister today. However, he was pretty sure that if anyone knew who Sora liked, it would be his sister…
"Selphie, does Sora like Kairi?" He managed to cut her off in mid-rant about the price of ice cream. She paused for a second…
"Um… Well… I don't know… Sora's been acting strange recently… He usually writes on his online journal all his feelings, but lately he's just described events. It's weird and un-Sora-like!" She made it sound as though it were some kind of conspiracy? Riku wasn't so sure if he should have asked Selphie now…
"Sora has an online journal?" Riku asked. Selphie nodded enthusiastically.
"Yup, it's called ! It's so cool!" Riku just listened to her ramble about all the cool accessories that came with the diaries. He really wasn't interested. He walked away, leaving her talking to herself for a few minutes before she'd realised he'd gone…
Sora sat in his computing class, bored out of his skull. Riku had isolated himself at the other end of the classroom, away from both Sora and Kairi. They couldn't even see what he was looking at on his screen…
Cloud sat next to him, but that was no small comfort. Cloud was moody nowadays, and rarely smiled. If he did, it was because he had to. Those blue eyes were always sad, as though all the light had gone from the world.
And Sora knew it was because Cloud had fallen in love.
Hard to admit, but he always thought Cloud would be more… forward about his relationships… Well, that was the past now. Cloud should either forgive Leon, for whatever he had done or said, or just move on.
Moping wasn't going to help.
You're one to talk.
"Mind if I sit here?" Kairi asked. Sora shrugged, he didn't care. He wasn't going to talk to her anyhow.
"Is Riku meant to be on your diary?" Kairi asked. Sora blinked, slowly registering the information. Processing, processing, processing… Analysis complete… What the fuck!?!
"Riku… is… on… where?" Sora demanded. Kairi looked at him with her large blue eyes then gestured to Riku's screen.
"Unless you've changed your template since the last time I went on it. Yeah, Riku is on your diary," Kairi said, rather smugly. Sora stood up, racing around the other side of the classroom to where Riku was sat.
The boy was concentrating on the screen, and Sora could see the look in his face was that of worry. That of someone who was reading something they didn't quite like. The face of someone reading HIS diary.
"What are you doing?" Sora demanded. Riku looked up, his eyes slightly wide. Sora turned the monitor, feeling his throat tighten as he saw the entry. His most recent entry…
Where to begin?
I'm jealous of a friendship between two of my friends. But who am I most jealous of, Riku or Kairi? I'm not sure anymore. I can pretend to myself it's Riku, but I know that I treasure Riku's friendship more.
Yes he's a bit of a twat sometimes… well, more than a bit… but still… I like him in my life. Cloud's been distant lately and I can't seem to jolt him out of it. So I turned to Riku, I guess…
But I've found something in him that I don't think many other people see… He's not that bad… But then again, sometimes he can be so mean…
He can make me feel so great, then make me feel so bad. I don't know why, but… I miss him when I go home.
I've never had a friendship like this before… The closest I ever came to this was 'Bob'… Then again, Bob might have been Riku anyhow…
I'm stopping writing here, I don't want to pour out my entire heart…
sighs I hate this journal. It makes me write down feelings I don't even know I have…
"What gave you the right to read that?" Sora demanded, aware that he was blushing. Riku looked up at him, before turning the screen back around.
"I wanted to know what's wrong with you. Now I know. You don't like to share me, right? You want me to be your friend and no one else's'," Riku asked. Sora felt tears sting his eyes. Riku didn't have a clue, did he?
"I'm sorry, Sora, I'm not prepared to do that…" Riku's soft voice, as soft as it ever could be, broke through into Sora's brain, echoing around.
I'm not prepared to do that.
"So much for friendship… I don't ask for much Riku. I just want a friend who I can trust!" Sora hissed. Hiss? You never 'hiss'. You must be upset… Poor baby Sora, lost his best friend…
"You don't ask for much? I've never known someone so demanding! You expect to come into school, bruises all over your face, and for me to not ask questions. You expect me to do what you ask, because we're friends. You expect me to give up other friends for you. What else do you want me to do, o master? Clean your boots? Wipe your arse?" Riku snapped. Sora turned away, taking a deep breath.
Riku will always be Riku
"Perhaps I was wrong to trust you after all…"
Cloud wrapped his arms around Sora, trying to comfort the brunet. He was staring into space, no longer crying, but his body was trembling.
It hurt that Sora saw Riku as a better friend, but Cloud guessed that he could trust Riku a lot more than he could trust him…
For god's sake, you're supposed to be his best friend and you drop him as soon as somebody hot comes along and shows a tiny bit of interest! Even a cold-hearted bastard like Riku is a better friend than you!
Sora was still sniveling, getting Cloud's T-shirt wet, but he didn't really care. He'd hurt Sora badly by not being there for him… If this was the right way to make it up to him, by being there when he was needed most, wasn't that more important? He stroked the brunet's hair protectively. He was here for Sora now.
"Sora?" Cloud looked down at the brunet, wondering whether he wanted to talk about it. So far, Sora had just cried and sniffled like the big, cute, cuddly teddy-bear that he was, not to mention the cute button nose that Cloud longed to 'beep', which he did when Sora looked up.
"You're so weird…" Sora chuckled as he wrestled Cloud to the ground and tickled mercilessly.
"Stop it!" Cloud cried in between girly shrieks of laughter. Sora didn't stop however, not until they heard someone calling their names. Sora looked up, seeing Selphie run up to them, grinning from ear to ear.
"Glad you two are all pally again, but we've got trouble!" Selphie gestured behind her, to a spot where Riku and Kairi were stood, six feet apart, snarling at each other. Sora briefly wondered how he couldn't have heard them from where he was sat.
"They're arguing… over you…" Sora turned to see Leon leaning against the wall. He turned back to Riku and Kairi. Kairi was advancing, her arm raised. The sound of the slap reverberated around the campus. Sora winced.
Remind me never to get slapped by Riku…
"Whoa… That's some bitch slap he's got… It could rival mine…" Cloud said, good-naturedly. Sora nodded, absently rubbing his cheek and feeling very sorry for Kairi, who had almost been knocked to the ground.
"Listen, you stupid bitch! You think I'm interested in you? I've told you before, I'm fucking gay! Why would I find some slapper-bitch like you attractive?" Riku yelled. Sora looked at Cloud.
"Gay,huh? Why didn't my homo-senses begin to tingle?" Cloud joked. Sora smiled, but carried on watching the two fighting.
He wasn't sure who he wanted to win. He tried to convince himself he hated Riku for reading his diary, for playing him for a fool. At the same time, he intensely disliked Kairi's whining.
Selphie was collecting bets. Cloud placed twenty dollars on Riku, as did Leon. Sora refused to bet, even though she offered him good odds. Instead, he strode forward, immediately stepping between the two of them.
"Cool it," He commanded. Riku's eyes widened, Kairi looked smug and Sora stood there, a hand on Riku's chest, pushing him away.
"Kairi, stop being a bitch. Riku, stop being a bitch too. Got that settled? Good," Without a look at either of them, Sora walked away.
He felt so tired…
Selphie was sitting on the floor of her room with the door open, listening to Sora playing his favourite song over and over. How had the day gone so wrong? The only highlight was all the cash she'd made on the bets, seeing as everybody lost.
She sighed and turned on he TV, aimlessly flicking through the channels and trying to find something that held her hyperactive attention for more than fifteen seconds. Eventually, she settled on a Ska music channel and danced around her bedroom, pigtails flying madly.
"SELPHIE!!! Turn that goddamn music down!!" Sora yelled. She sighed and did as her older brother asked, even though he wasn't really in a position to talk. Kicking the door shut, she flopped onto her bed and stared out of the window.
Why is Sora so grumpy? Yes, his friends were arguing, but he split them up, right? It isn't as if it's the end of the world… No, if we ran out of ice cream, then THAT would be the end of the world… Just think, a world without chocolate-chip mint ice cream with raspberry sauce and one of those little wafer thingys… Now THAT would be hell Even the thought made her shiver.
Hang on a minute, I know how to make Sora feel better! I'll bake him an ice cream cake! Oh, wait…you can't bake ice cream… what's baked Alaska then? Hopping with excitement, she ran out of her room and straight into Sora, who was nearly knocked flying. She looked up sheepishly, only to see that he'd been crying again.
"Hey, Selph, watch where you're going!" He said, fighting for balance. When he fell, she sat on him.
"I'm going to bake you a cake to cheer you up!" Selphie declared, not noticing Sora's face paling almost immediately.
"You're going to love it! It'll taste really nice! It will have all kinds of stuff in it that's all tasty!" She told him. Sora smiled up at her.
"Right, what kind of cake?" He asked. She grinned, getting off him and running down the stairs, calling over her shoulder.
"Ice cream!"
Sora looked slightly worried.
Riku sat in Sephiroth's office, playing about with some of the characters. He found the sketch he was looking for. The one he'd kept secret from everyone, the one with the paopu fruit…
The one where he was giving one to Sora…
Sighing, he scrumpled it up, throwing it into the trash. He reluctantly turned back to his sketch, Kairi and Sora sat on the pier in the sunset. They looked right together… Hesitantly, Riku sketched himself into the picture. Now it looked wrong…
He erased himself angrily, blaming Kairi, blaming Sora, blaming his own damn feelings. He hated this feeling. This longing and pining. Why was everything so hard?
"How's you doin' squirt?" Cid, a rough and tough new business associate of Sephiroth's asked. Riku shrugged, leaning back.
"I've been better," He replied. Riku liked Cid, who was never without a cigarette in his mouth and always had those stupid goggles on his head.
"Too bad, kid. I heard about this little movie of yours. How's it going?" Cid leaned against the desk, looking over at Riku's drawings. His mouth went slack.
"You know Sora?" He demanded. Riku raised and eyebrow and nodded.
"He's my nephew. Didn't think you two would get on," Cid commented. Riku stared at his sketches.
"We did until this morning gramps…" He replied.
"Don't call me that!" Cid moaned. Riku smirked slightly.
He got a blank piece of paper, sketching a new drawing. It was of himself, dressed in black, tendrils of darkness weaving around him like vines. Sora, stabbing him through the heart, light surrounding him. His face was that of a dying man, Sora's was that of someone doing a distasteful duty.
"Shit, kid, you're good!" Cid took the picture, looking at it hard.
"Can I take this and get a copy?" Cid asked. Riku shrugged, it didn't matter to him. Nothing much did.
"Whatever you say, gramps…"
"Stop calling me that!"
"Okay!" Selphie bounded out of the pantry with a blue and white apron forced over her bunches and a wooden spoon in her hand. Sora stood by her, looking slightly less enthusiastic.
"Where's the mixing bowl?" Selphie ran to the nearest cupboard, tripped over the string of her apron and went flying.
Okay, Sora was looking a lot less enthusiastic.
"Uh…Selph? You okay?"
"I'm cool!" She said, springing up and rummaging in the cupboard, calling out ingredients to Sora, who went to fetch them. Finally, Selphie emerged triumphantly with the mixing bowl and plonked it onto the countertop, grabbing the bag of flour.
"Selph…Don't tip all the flour in-" Sora got a mouthful of off-white powder as his sister tipped the whole bag of cornflour into the bowl.
"What was that, Sora?" She asked innocently. "No time for talking!" She cut him off as he opened his mouth to explain why cornflour was used as a thickening agent, and was also used in glue. "Now for the eggs!" She said, running towards the fridge and taking out a family-size packet of Haribo and large pack of Cadbury's Mini-Eggs.
"Uh, Selphie, I don't think you're meant to use those eggs…" Sora tried to protest, but realised it was useless as he was instructed to go through the entire packet of Haribo and take out all of the gummy eggs. Selphie happily upended the Mini-Eggs into the bowl and mixed it up with the spoon. His sister then took the artificial flavourings and colourings out of the cupboard and tipped them all in, happily mumbling about a 'rainbow cake'.
Sora prayed for an excuse not to eat this demon cake from hell.
"Are you done with those eggs yet, Sora?" She asked, not bothering to wait for a reply as she took them from him and added them to the rapidly thickening mixture. Sora knew that he shouldn't look at the mixture, but he peered into the bowl anyway.
The colourings were blending, turning the stuff in the bowl into a brownish-pink gloop with little bits of crushed Mini-Egg and Haribo floating around or slowly sinking in it.
"Ugh…" Sora groaned, knowing that he would be forced to eat the muck sooner or later.
"Hmmm..." Selphie was peering into the bowl, obviously thinking of what to add next to her monstrous concoction. "It's too thick…I know! I'll add some water!"
"Selph, I don't think-" Sora protested weakly, knowing she wouldn't listen anyway.
"Shh, Sora, I know what I'm doing!" She replied briskly, tipping the entire contents of a four-litre jug of water into the bowl.
Sora doubted this very much.
"Oh dear, Now it's too runny!" Selphie's cry of dismay was quickly stifled as she thought of another thing to add. " Stir it, Sora, I'm going to get the baking soda!"
"Baking…soda…?" Even Sora's limited knowledge of cookery told him that baking soda and cornflour was a bad combination. Nevertheless, he picked up the spoon and stirred the mixture. It wasn't easy, because the water was already thickening because of the cornflour. It looked like brown wallpaper paste.
Selphie came back and dumped the baking soda into the bowl, before climbing onto the countertop and yelling at Sora to stir faster, which was rather difficult, due to the cake looking more like concrete by the minute.
"C'mon, stir faster, you big sissy!" She giggled gleefully as Sora began to sweat.
"Okay, that's enough!" She slid off the counter, elbowed Sora out of the way and grabbed the spoon, tugging on it unsuccessfully, as it had become cemented into the bowl. Sora watched her struggle for a few minutes before pulling her hands off the spoon and trying it himself. He had to admit, it was hard to get it out. When it finally came out, ten minutes later, he fell over backwards and landed painfully a metre away.
The mixture was still attached to the spoon, stretching all the way from the bowl. Selphie was poking it, clearly amazed that something that solid could stretch that far.
Eventually, after they realised that it would take the scissors to free the spoon (they'd decided to leave the clearing up to the kitchen staff when they'd returned from their day off) the mixture was ready to put in the oven.
Watching Selphie try to lift her concoction was very funny (they had given up on trying to remove the mixture from the bowl long ago), but eventually even she realised she needed help. After fifteen minutes of pushing, shoving and slipping, the two managed to get it into the oven.
It now resembled a large bowl of solid brown cement, with a hole in the middle where the spoon had been. Selphie hurriedly scooped some ice cream into the hole.
"How long d'ya think it needs?" asked Selphie, looking slightly worse for wear but smiling nonetheless. She was fiddling with the controls on the oven, having failed to notice Sora's weak warning not to turn the temperature too high. Having settled on the highest temperature the oven had to offer, they retreated upstairs to clean themselves up.
And were called back downstairs by what was nothing short of a muffled explosion…
Riku looked up as Sora entered the homeroom. He grinned at Riku, and the silver haired boy was sure that the grin was of pure evil.
"Hey Riku, me and Selph er, baked, this cake and we were wondering if you wanted some?" Sora asked, handing Riku a piece. Riku looked at it, it looked like a splodge of mud that had been shaped into something resembling a triangle.
"What's in it?" Riku asked distrustfully. Sora smiled, that wicked smile once more…
"Taste it and see…"
Riku took a small bite of the cake. Was it him or was it gluing his teeth together? And was it growing larger in his mouth? Erk! What was this?
Sora's teacher walked in to see Riku on the floor, coughing, and Cloud trying to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre. It was unsuccessful and just made it look like they were doing something obscene on the floor.
"I knew I should have stayed home today…" She sighed, leaving the room, then re-entering, hoping the madness would have faded away.
As usual, it hadn't…
"You should have seen your face!" Sora said in between gasps of laughter. Riku glared at him.
"Thanks Sora. I trusted that you wouldn't try to poison me and you gave me that? What was it?" Riku had already eaten an entire packet of polos and still complained he could taste the foul flavour of the cake.
"Ice cream, Mini-Eggs, Haribo and various artificial flavourings," Sora explained. Everyone else howled with laughter, everyone except Riku, who didn't really find it funny at all.
"Lighten up Riku, it was just a joke!" Sora protested. Riku stood up, not looking at him.
"Very funny Sora. I suppose you expect me to laugh and fuck around with you again? I'm fed up with it all! I'm fed up with pretending to like you! I'm fed up with having to bow to your every little whim! I've bent over backwards for this friendship, the least you could do is stop with the- the…" Words failed Riku, and he just walked away.
Sora watched him for a while, waiting.
Look back, look back, look back, look back…
Sure enough, Riku looked back, but Sora noted that there were tears in his eyes…
Kairi didn't feel triumphant as she'd thought she would. Sure, she'd managed to break up the happy friendship… Somehow, all the glory had gone from winning.
To see Sora so upset, to see Riku cry…
It was wrong… It shouldn't happen… Kairi sighed, she could put her pride on the line, stick her neck out for them both, or do nothing…
"Say Sora, there's a blitzball match on Wednesday. You can come if you like. I'll get you guys front seats," She offered. They all accepted her offer.
"Are you cheerleading?" Yuffie asked. Kairi nodded, looked at Selphie who was beaming at them all.
"So am I!" The brunette announced. If it had been anime, Kairi was sure they'd have all sweat-dropped.
"I'll see you on Wednesday then… Oh and Leon, please invite Riku too. I'll reserve you all seats. Got to go!" She dashed off, determined to catch Mr Strife to reserve those seats.
Ending Notes:
Okay, a lot of humour in there… I wasn't planning on that, but it's a welcome relief I think. The whole Riku choking thing gives me… weird… mental images… A Riku/Cloud pairing fic could be quite interesting… Lol…
Anyhow, this is the end of this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it.
Special thanks to Roo, who wrote most of Selphie's narratives in this. She is the original Selphie, yup, an absolute airhead…
Um…looking out for a beta reader for my next fic, Sand In My Shoes. I was wondering if anyone is interested. I've done my own beta work for this (finding I'm a lot more critical of my work than most people I know ::shame on you lukie!:: ) But I'd really like someone to read through it. I'd like more than one, so that that I can get plenty of feedback. Well, beggars can't be choosers. Please will you all consider it? Thank you ever so.