Stranger Than Fiction
Chapter Sixteen:
A Turn For The Worse
Author's Note:
I can hear you groaning as you read the title of this chapter. You just knew I wasn�t going to make it that easy for Sora to admit his feelings, didn�t you? It seems to me as though there�s been an awful lot happening over the last sixteen chapters, and it�s been so drawn out, and then the rest of the events just go bam-bam-bam like that�
Oh well�
Review for your thank you certificate.
Disclaimer:
I don�t own Kingdom Hearts nor any of the characters.
Eva, who always arrived at five am every morning, shook Riku awake. He glanced at the clock, noting it was the wrong side of six am and tried to go to sleep. Then he received a sharp slap across the face.
"Wake up!" Eva snapped. Riku rubbed his face, glaring at the woman unashamedly. However, Eva's expression silenced any remarks from the platinum haired boy.
"Riku� It's your mother. The ambulance will be here shortly but... It's not looking good," Eva said gently. Riku sprang to his feet, pushing passed her none too lightly and almost throwing her into the wall.
Oh God! Mom! Mom! Please let her be alright�
Riku ran into the room to see his mother hooked up to the emergency support machines that had been hidden away in the closets. Leon was sat beside her, his eyes red.
"I woke up and found her... She didn't respond to what I was saying... I hooked her up to the life support but I made a few mistakes... I was lucky Eva came to help me," Leon admitted. Riku grabbed his mother's hand, reassured when it was still warm.
"Mom, I'm here. Riku's here. C'mon Mom! Open your eyes!" Riku begged, tears falling down his cheeks onto his mother's pristine bedclothes. He clenched her hand, knowing if she were awake he'd be hurting her.
"I'm sorry boys, but the hospital has phoned back� Their ambulances have been sent to a boarding school that's on fire. They say it could be a further twenty minutes before one of their ambulances reach us," Eva said apologetically.
The two brothers looked at each other, their eyes glistening with tears, and silently prayed that twenty minutes wouldnt make much difference.
Sora took a deep breath as he entered the classroom. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, but the idea was that he would ask Riku to go out the classroom with him. They'd go to Sora's locker, where he had a simple rose, well, a black rose, he thought Riku would prefer that.
He would tell Riku about his feelings then, hopefully, Riku would say he returned them. If not, Sora would simply blush and apologise, before going back into the classroom feeling a bit of a fool.
However, when he looked into the classroom, Riku wasn't there. Sora sat down, watching the doorway, waiting for Riku to enter. When the bell went however, Sora bit his lip. Riku never missed school...
The teacher walked in, and as she read the register, he noticed she didn't even bother to read Riku's name out. Why? Sora got up to the front of the class, at the end of registration and leaned on her desk.
"Where's Riku, ma'am?" He asked. The teacher's lips pursed.
"I'm afraid that's for him to tell people, when he's ready. It's to be revealed at his discretion, not mine," She said sternly. Sora felt his heart sink. Something had happened to Riku, and he wasn't going to be in�
That rose would die and then he'd have to go and cut another from the garden� A black rose� He'd had to feed them ink through their water. His mother had been quite shocked when she'd seen a black rose bush in her garden.
Stupid woman...
"Oh, c'mon! Please?" Sora tried his best puppy dog look, the kind that would melt snowmen, but the teacher regarded him with the same stony stare. Sighing, Sora gave up, he wasn't getting any information from that source.
"It is at-" The teacher began. Sora rolled his eyes.
"I know, I know, Riku's discretion�" He droned. Glad her message had got through, the teacher nodded her head and returned to her work. Sora trudged out of the room.
"What's wrong with her?" Riku demanded. The poor doctor was flicking through his mother's file, it was at least three times the file of any of the other patients. He finally found what he was looking for and shoved it in Riku's general direction before running back to finish his work with Riku's mom.
"That was rather rude�" Leon commented, watching the doctor leave.
"But informative," Riku replied, as his eyes scanned the page. He skipped the words he didn't understand, the medical terms, but he understood it, mostly.
"What?" Leon asked. Riku sat down, handing him the piece of paper, running his hands through his hair.
"This is the information on the drugs mom's taking," Leon stated. Riku nodded, watching Leon�s expression as he read further.
"What the?" He breathed. Riku sighed.
"Yeah, that's right. It wasn't a 'wonder-drug' at all... It was just one that took the pain away... Mom's been through them all now, so she just consigned to taking pain killers... Leon, she's going to die..." Riku's voice broke. Leon looked at his younger brother, and wrapping his arms around his shoulders.
Hearing Leon try to soothe him slightly, Riku forced himself to calm down. Had he ever really thought that his mother had found a wonder-drug? The fact that she'd lied to them about it made him think that perhaps she had thought she'd just pass away quietly in her sleep?
So she wouldn't have to say goodbye�
"Mom�" Riku whimpered. Leon stroked his hair, trying to somehow take away Riku's pain through such a simple gesture.
"I wish Sora were here..." He whispered, Leon didn't reply.
"I know he'd understand�"
"I don't understand!" Sora whined. Kairi sighed and gave up explaining the subtleties of mixing chemicals in chemistry. She rolled her eyes. She had made a great show of pairing up with Sora, and made it quite clear that she was only doing it out of pity because Riku wasn't here.
"Why isn't Riku here anyhow?" She asked after a while. Sora bit his lip.
"I don't know... It sounds serious but those who know won't tell me, and no one else seems to have a clue what's going on. A few people are saying that they saw an ambulance outside Riku's house this morning which makes me even more worried..." Sora said quietly. Kairi made a slightly 'oh' sound.
"I hope he's okay� I don't like him much, but I'd hate for anything to happen to him..." She said. Sora nodded.
"Well, we've got to find Leon, he'll know what's going on. Would you... help me?" He asked.
The red head looked thoughtful for a second, then she grinned.
"Sure! The search for Leon begins!"
Cloud leaned against his locker, thoroughly depressed. He had counted on Leon being here today, for the sole purpose of flirting with him... Well, it was too late now...
However, Cloud was still pissed he hadn't had a phone call or anything... He'd even gone to the effort of wearing the scent that Leon had said he liked... Well, that was tough, he wasn't wearing it tomorrow.
Sighing, Cloud ran his hand through his hair. He hadn't realised how dependent he'd become on Leon. He was almost like a child clinging onto their father. Except no kid daydreams of molesting their father...
Smirking to himself, Cloud looked up the corridor to see Sora and Kairi walking towards him. He looked up and smiled, but only received one from Kairi.
"Where's Leon?" Sora demanded. Cloud blinked.
"He's not here today," Cloud replied. Sora glared at Cloud, as though it were his fault.
"Why?" The brunet demanded. Cloud frowned.
"You don't have to be rude you know. I don't know why, he hasn't been in touch. I assume he's just sick or something� Say, where's the other half?" Cloud peered behind Sora and Kairi to look for Riku, who obviously wasn't there.
"He's not here today..." Sora replied. "That's why we wanted to find Leon. We were trying to find out where Riku is... If Leon's not here either..." Sora trailed off into thought.
"Maybe they went on holiday?" Kairi suggested cheerily. Sora and Cloud glared at her as one.
"Without telling me?" They said together. Kairi giggled.
"You sound like their boyfriends!" She said, in between girly giggles. Cloud knew he was blushing like mad, he noted that Sora was too. It was at that moment when Selphie bounded up, followed by Yuffie, huge grins on their faces.
"So, did you tell Riku?" She teased. Cloud noted that Sora's blush got deeper.
"He's not here today�" Sora replied. Selphie's face fell.
"That's too bad, because I had the most romantic idea for you!" She announced. Everyone looked at Sora, who hastily averted his eyes to the floor.
"You like Riku?" Kairi asked. Sora bit his lip.
"Um� Yeah?" He said. Kairi stepped away.
"Why is it all the guys I think are hot turn gay! It's not fair!" She protested, although she was grinning.
"First Cloud, then Riku and Leon, now you. Now all I need is for Tidus and Wakka to get together and all the fit boys will be gone!" She then looked up and down the corridor.
"I have to go and apologise to Tidus for being such a bitch before he turns homo!" She squealed and ran off down the corridor.
"I think that was called a 'Selphie' moment," Cloud commented. Selphie shook her head.
"Nah, even I know that Tidus and Wakka are dating already..." She replied. Sora and Cloud looked at each other.
One in thirty people are homosexual or bisexual. In the western world, homosexuality is embraced across the board and accepted by the majority of people. However, what is it like to be a homosexual in a less welcoming country? We interviewed Ahmed Singh�
Riku sighed, throwing the magazine onto the waiting room table. Leon looked up from his magazine that he'd bribed a kid for who was passing through with a broken leg.
"Can I read that one yet?" Riku demanded. Leon sighed.
"Okay... Let me just read the 'Pandora' strip," He flicked through the magazine, looked at it for about five seconds, smiled vaguely and passed it to Riku.
"Life is Loud�" Riku read allowed. Riku shuddered. Death is certainly quiet then... This place is more quiet than a morgue... Perhaps it is�
They were in the Intensive Care unit's waiting room, they were the only ones there, and they had been waiting for hours now. Both of them had calmed down from the shock, their mom had stabilised and they were talking about letting her go home in a few weeks.
They had also told the boys what had happened. They explained it was like a small hiccup, a smaller version of what would happen when their mother passed away. He explained that this time, they'd caught her just in time and they'd been able to revive her, next time her organs would just shut down.
The doctor walked in, sitting down on the chair opposite Riku and Leon.
"Right boys, I can tell you your mother is fine. She looks a little worse for wear, so we suggest you come back tomorrow to see her. I would also recommend staying with friends tonight. It might be a bit strange to be in the house without her," The doctor advised. Riku looked at Leon.
"Doctor, we'd rather get used to not having her there... It's inevitable isn't it?" Leon asked. The doctor sighed.
"I'd give her... Two months at most, about April time. She'll be fine right up until the day she dies, it might be quite sudden. I'd just enjoy these last few months..." The doctor's tone was sympathetic.
"Thank you doctor," Riku said quietly. The man nodded and stood up, shaking Leon's hand and finally Riku's. He looked hard at Riku's eyes.
"You remind me of someone..." He said. Riku sighed.
"Sephiroth or Aerith?" He asked. The man laughed and clapped Riku's shoulders.
"I would say both!" The doctor said good-naturedly. Riku appreciated he was only trying to lighten to mood, but right now he didn't want to be reminded of his other parents when the one he cared about most was lying attached to life support machines.
"The Cordeles are my real parents, I was adopted by the Leonharts when I was nine..." Riku explained. The doctor looked at him as though he didn't believe him, but said nothing and left shortly after.
Leon sighed deeply, his tired eyes roaming the room before finally landing back on Riku.
"You should phone Seph and Aerith, explain to them what's happened... And Sora too..." Leon added. Riku bit his lip.
"I'll phone Seph, but Sora? I dunno... I get the feeling he'd rush to get here. I don't want him to see me... like this�" Riku whispered. Leon nodded. How selfish am I? I don't want to look weak so I push him away when I need him most�
"All about appearances, huh?" Leon asked coldly.
"To Sora, I must seem so strong and calm... I don't want to break that preconception..." Riku smiled sadly. Yes, his mom had two months to live, but Sora wouldn't see him cry. He was stronger than that in the brunet's eyes.
"To Sora you're perfect," Leon muttered. Riku raised his eyebrows but said nothing. Perfect? I'm far from it... I've hurt that boy more than I've ever made him smile... Why does he keep coming back?
"Whether you want to tell him or not, Sora is going to want to know why you weren't at school� I've no doubt that they're all sat there, in their last lesson of the day, making up stories about where we are...."
"It's just further proof of an incestuous relationship!" Kairi giggled. Cloud and Sora laughed, and it was then that they realised that almost the entire class was listening to their conversation. Deciding to carry on regardless, Sora thought of another reason.
"Maybe they've gone to visit relatives?" He suggested. Kairi pondered this for a second.
"Wouldn't explain the secrecy..." Cloud deduced. Sora sighed.
"Maybe they have some embarrassing STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease)?" Kairi suggested, her chuckles were heard across the classroom. Cloud smirked.
"Nah, Leon hasn't had sex since he came here," The blonde informed them. Sora's eyebrows raised almost to his hairline.
"And you'd know because...?" He prompted. Cloud stretched lazily, putting his hands behind his head. Kairi watched, interested.
"Because he told me. Heh heh heh, I've been laid more times than he has..." Cloud's snigger was soft but Sora detected a little hint of something in it... Like Cloud was nervous or something.
"Ah, so you think you'll be on top huh..." Sora asked. Kairi squeaked.
"I don't mind being uke, if that's what you mean Sora. Besides, if you ever manage to get with Riku, I'd be very interested in what you'd be... I couldn't see you being all submissive..." Cloud teased. Sora turned bright red and looked away.
"Are you trying to seduce me Sora?" Riku's voice was low, soft, almost as though he were caressing Sora's mind as Sora longed him to do so with his body... Sora groaned, nodding, hoping that Riku would take away the longing...
"Pardon?" Riku teased. Sora felt himself facing two voices. One screaming at him to stop, the other wondering what it would be like...
"Yes I am," Sora replied. He felt Riku's soft touch on his cheek, it was so gentle, so loving. The more he felt it, the more he liked it. He wanted to stay like that forever, just sit there and let Riku touch him...
"You're not doing a very good job... I'm getting bored..." Riku sat back, away from Sora, enjoying teasing the boy. So Riku wanted Sora to touch him in return? Well Sora could be a tease too, when he wanted to be... He straddled the platinum haired boy's waist.
"I don't think you are..." Sora murmured, enjoying the feel of Riku's soft skin against the tips of his fingers. Running his hands around, watching the boy's expression, the muscles tensing. He ran his hands into Riku's hair, admiring how silky it felt as it glided through his fingers. He lifted the boy's face towards his, so they were looking into each other's eyes.
"I think you want me to seduce you... You want to be uke..." Sora whispered against Riku's lips. Sora's control went out of the window as he kissed Riku passionately, wondering why it felt so right...
"I think it'd be a tough choice," Sora admitted, aware of a blush spreading across his face. Kairi's mouth opened and closed quickly.
"I can't believe you're talking about your sex lives with an innocent little girl sat here! I mean, I don't want to mental images... Too late..." Kairi added, miserably. Sora grinned, he actually quite liked those mental images...
"Hey, we had some pretty bad ones when you described what happened between you and Zell!" Cloud said. Sora frowned.
"Huh?" He asked. Kairi blushed.
"Well, I was Zell's first... you know� I kinda told Selphie all the gory details and she told everyone..." Kairi's voice was quite low. Sora's mouth was hanging open.
"You kissed and told?" He demanded. Kairi's blush got deeper, two splotches of pink appeared on her cheek.
"Well� It helped Selphie and him get together, because he wasn't too confident with girls before then. Now at least he'll-" Kairi stopped when Sora made gagging noise.
"Please don't finish that sentence with 'keep her happy' Kairi. That's my little sister and her boyfriend we're talking about!" He protested. Cloud smirked and tilted his head to one side.
"Selphie doesn't strike me as some sex fiend anyway. I doubt they've even spoken about sex yet," Cloud reassured his friend. Sora sighed, he was probably right after all. Kairi kept her mouth shut, but if Sora had looked up it would have said it all.
It clearly said 'yeah-they-didn't-speak-about-it-they-just-did-it!'.
"I wonder what Leon and Riku are doing right now?"
"Instant noodles? Yum..." Riku pretended to be interested in the food that had been placed in front of him. Leon shrugged sitting down opposite him. Neither were terribly hungry, though they hadn't eaten since the previous evening.
"I phoned Seph, he said he'll come round later with Aerith to 'hang out'. God knows what that means but I'm dreading it already..." Riku mumbled. Leon sighed.
"I know this sounds cruel, but they are your parents. To be honest, mom's gonna die and soon.. Shouldn't you try to become closer to your parents?" The brunet asked. Riku forced himself to eat some noodles. Seph and Aerith weren't just a meal ticket...
"I know�" He said after swallowing the 'noodle textured cardboard'.
"You can do the washing up seeing as I cooked," Leon said. Riku glared at him.
"You call this cooking? You just add water!" He protested. Leon shrugged.
"What do you do in washing up? Just add water," He replied, getting up and carrying his plate up to his room. So Riku was left alone in the kitchen, with just himself and a plate of noodles.
"I want my mom back..." Riku hissed, tears falling down his face. "God, I just want my mom..."
"Why do we have parents? All they seem to do is make my life hell..." Sora complained. Sakura chuckled, as Sora kicked her ass at Tekken 4 yet again. He eventually grew bored, seeing as the competition wasn't very good.
"Let's play something else�" He said finally. Sakura nodded, rummaging through his games once more and holding up another game.
"Catz?" He asked. She nodded, running to his PC and installing the program that had been deleted when Sora had got bored of it. She reinstalled it, heading to the adoption centre immediately.
"Let's see... Sora� You look like a tabby... Hm� What other species are there? No, you're not an Egyptian Mau..." Sakura went through the list, deciding on 'Maine Coon' for Sora, even though she had wanted to put him as an 'Alley Cat'.
"Let's see... Some of your friends from the party..." Sakura mused. She bit her bottom lip.
"Leon would be a 'Tabby'... Cloud� Hm, a hard one there... 'Egyptian Mau'... Riku� 'Siamese'." She rambled. Upon hearing Riku's name, Sora paid attention.
"Russian Blue," He suggested. She raised her eyebrows.
"Russian Blue's are beautiful aristocrats you'll love to own? But Riku sounds more like a Siamese, Siamese Catz are playful but can be a bit independent and finicky," Sakura suggest. Sora sighed.
"He's a cross between the two I guess... But he's more elegant that those ugly Siamese things..." The brunet said. Sakura shrugged.
"Sure, you know him best," She replied. It was only when Sakura had left that Sora actually studied in detail what she'd done.
It was then he realised that he was a female cat, and the pair she'd been trying to get to breed were himself and Riku.
Sora grinned, imagining what he was going to tell Riku the next day when he was back at school. (Sora had decided that if Riku spent more than a day of school he was in fact dead, and therefore, they wouldn't need to worry anymore.)
"Riku, honey, I'm pregnant with kittens," Sora grinned evilly. This could be quite funny.
Riku sat on his own, his room was dark and the only light came from his computer screen. On it, the Matchmaker game was playing to itself, Cloud and Leon were doing obscene things in the shower and Sora and Riku were sitting down to a romantic dinner.
If only reality were one of those games...
"Squirt?" Leon poked his head through the door. Riku looked up, smiling briefly.
"You go back to school tomorrow, I'm going to stay at home, seeing as I only have one lesson I like tomorrow anyway. I'll call you if there's any news, but you need your friends right now," Leon's voice clearly told Riku that if he argued, he would just end up getting hit.
"Okay..." Riku replied. Leon ran his hands through his hair.
"You realise that when... it... happens, I won't be allowed to be your legal guardian right? That it will have to be Aerith and Sephiroth� I'm not twenty-one..." Leon said haltingly. Riku sighed.
"I know..." He replied. The brunet sat back.
"I don't know what I'll do. I guess mom will sort it all out, huh?" Leon asked. Riku curled into a ball on his bed. How could Leon be so calm? They were talking about a time when their mom might not be alive�
And, biologically, although that really didn't matter, Leon was closer to his mother. Why wasn't he so upset and angry like Riku?
"I'm going to go downstairs and watch TV, okay?" Leon asked. Riku clenched his fists, but still exploded in the startled brunet's face.
"No, it's not 'okay', it's not 'okay' at all! You're acting as though nothing's wrong! You're acting as though she's just going away for a long trip. She's going to be fucking dead. How can you talk about legal guardians and crap like that?" Riku demanded. Leon's face hardened now he'd got over the initial shock of having abuse hurled at him.
Riku finally knew what it was like to be on the opposite end of Leon's anger.
"Wake up Riku! She was always going to die! Maybe you were living in dreamland all these years as her health deteriorated faster and faster each day. I can't believe you'd be so blind! This doesn't come as a shock to me, my father reminded me every fucking day that I was the reason my mom was dying. I've been through all the guilt, all the years of watching her love another child that wasn't her own more than she loved me. I wasn't jealous, but I was able to get to terms with the fact that no matter what happened, she was going to die. I have no doubt that it'll be you who she cries out for on her death bed..." With that, Leon stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Riku swallowed hard. He felt the tears rise in his eyes. Leon thought their mom loved Riku more than him? That was wrong... All Amy had ever talked about to him had been Leon...
Riku had just been the only person she could brag to about her son. The one she'd been able to give birth to, the one she loved more than anything in the world.
Riku was her son, and she loved him and Leon equally, but there would always be that bond between the two...
It saddened Riku to think that Leon thought that way... But at the same time, he felt guilt wash over him...
He had been the orphan who craved for attention. Before, Leon had been an only child and had been the centre of attention. Suddenly, Riku waltzes in with his charming cheeky smile and his strange features and he's all anyone can talk about.
But Leon hadn't been jealous... He'd accepted Riku, welcomed him, played with him and took a back seat... It had been Leon who had risked his life for his mother to pay for her healthcare... It hadn't been Riku...
Feeling extremely sorry for himself now, Riku glanced back at the screen.
He and Sora were arguing about something, something that was obviously so trivial. The two simulated people walked away, before turning around and running back, apologising profusely.
Riku smiled sadly.
If there was one person who he had to explain this to, it was Sora. He might destroy his own appearance in Sora's eyes, but he would gain a stronger connection with the boy�
And a confidant that would never hurt him on purpose�
Ending Notes:
Yup, I did it, I basically said, Riku�s mom will die, it�s only a matter of time. I also put off the admittance chapter, but I suppose that seems rather trivial now, doesn�t it? Riku�s mom dying versus Sora�s petty �I, um, I r-really like you� Riku?�
Well, I�ll let you decide, because naturally, I live for your reviews. I was rather chuffed with the amount of reviews I�ve been getting. Thank you so much!!!
I'm sorry, I've spent over 2 hours going through this because messed it up when I uploaded it.... Grr....