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Bon à lire!
-Slay
A Day of Mercy
Chapter 2
The Boy With Blue Eyes
-o-o-o-
Sunlight bit his face again, the sudden blast of wind throwing back his hood as he flashed across the street, grabbing the falling body and rolling over the ground, taking the impact on his back and barely feeling it. Once he'd righted himself, Riku looked down at the person he'd caught—a teenaged boy with wild brown hair and a blindfold over his eyes.
Well. That explained why he fell off the roof.
Shaking hands had worried themselves into his shirt; Riku plucked them off, setting the boy on the ground and leaning back on his heels. "Where I come from, we know better than to wear blindfolds on the roof," he clipped.
The boy pouted and tried to wrestle the dark cloth from his eyes. "I didn't know I was on the roof," he huffed. He yanked on the blindfold from all sides, but apparently it had been wrapped way too tightly around his head. He fumbled with the knot in the back, but made no progress. "Ugh! Dangit, why'd he tie it so tight?"
Riku rolled his eyes and burrowed his fingertips under the knot, wrenching the blindfold up and off in one quick motion. He tossed the length of cloth aside and fixed the boy with a derogative look—but it didn't last.
With the blindfold gone, the boy was left to blink away the onslaught of light, his eyes ample and round beneath sprays of lush black lashes, valiant and blue as the clearest summer skies. A dazzling smile spilled over his youthful face. "Thanks!"
"Uh…Yeah…" Riku realized he was staring and slammed his eyes shut. He cleared his throat and got to his feet, burying his hands in his jean pockets.
"Oh my God!"
The shout came from above, and when the two looked up they saw a distraught blonde leaning over the ledge of the roof. "Sora!" He cried. "Are you hurt? I'll be right down!"
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Sora scrambled to his feet and waved at the blonde, who nodded frantically before ducking out of sight, allegedly on his way down from the roof. Not even five seconds later, that same blonde came tearing out of the first floor entrance, barreling over to Sora and crushing him in a hug. He took a step back and held the brunette by the shoulders, looking him up and down worriedly. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"I was trying to find my soda—I thought it was close enough to grab with the blindfold on, but I guess I got turned around and ended up on the roof," Sora recounted sheepishly. "I completely forgot about the open door, and wandered out here…Heh, maybe playing videogames blindfolded wasn't the best idea…"
"Wait, you really did fall off the roof?"
"Yeah, but I didn't get hurt thanks to this guy—hey, where're you going?"
Riku had decided that he was done here, having spared the street cleaners a pretty grisly job, and was crossing back to the billboard, dedicated to checking out that dockhand job before the day got away from him.
"Hey! Hey, wait up—I'll be right back, Roxas—C'mon, man, hold on a sec!"
Riku ignored him, ripping the flier from the billboard and inspecting it. The docks were back by the eastern edge of town, along the northern coastline—he remembered passing them on his way in—and it looked like all they needed was a strong back for moving freight. The work was right up his alley, and the pay was acceptable, so he folded up the flier and stuffed it in his pocket.
"You sure are in a hurry!" Sora had caught up to him and was now following him down Market Street.
"What do you want?" Riku trudged along without looking at the brunette, pulling his hood back over his head when he felt the sun's familiar burn on his scalp.
"I was just gonna thank you for saving my life," Sora replied earnestly. "It's not the kind of thing people take lightly, y'know."
"Hmph."
There was suddenly a hand hoisted out in front of him, the brunette trotting along at his side and smiling amiably. "I'm Sora."
"I heard."
Sora dropped his hand, but didn't give up. "I don't think I've seen you before—are you new in town?"
"What do you care?"
"Well, my family moved here when I was seven, and I remember how scary it was being in a new place and not knowing anybody—other than my brothers, but they don't really count 'cause—"
"I'm not seven years old," Riku snapped, quickening his pace in the hopes of shaking this chatterbox.
"No, but it can still get pretty lonely," Sora countered, keeping up with him easily. "I was just thinking we could be friends. Then, if you needed anything, you could just come to me, and that way I could pay you back for saving me."
After realizing that this guy wasn't letting up, Riku sighed and came to a stop. "Look," he said flatly, "I'm just passing through, okay? And don't be so clingy—it drives people off."
Sora didn't seem to register the second half of his statement. "Oh! Are you here for the festival?"
"Festival?"
"Yeah! The summer solstice is in a couple weeks. Every year there's this huge festival all over the islands that lasts for a whole week!" His face lit up suddenly. "You should come celebrate with us! It'll be so much fun!"
"Pass."
The boy's flamboyant expression dampened. "Oh, you already have plans, huh?"
"…Yeah." Riku lied. "Big plans. Sorry." He started moving forward, and was disturbed to find Sora still following him—and smiling. Again. There was just no squashing this guy, was there?
"Well, that's okay," Sora beamed. "It's a pretty big festival. I'm sure we'll see each other all over the place!"
"Oh, joy."
"Are you doing the Charge to Sunrise this year?"
"The what?"
Sora gaped at him. "You don't know about the Charge?" He leapt out in front of Riku, cutting off his already unsuccessful attempt at retreat. "You should join our team! It'd be awesome! Oh! Do you like sports? You could play in the tournament with us too!"
"Are you always this annoying?"
Sora laughed good-naturedly. "Sorry. I guess I do come on a little strong." He rubbed the back of his neck and grinned bashfully. "It's just, we don't get a lot of fresh faces out here."
I can see why. Riku was beyond done with this guy, and would seriously reconsider saving people from now on if this was the thanks he got. "I have to be somewhere," he said bluntly.
Sora shook his head. "Say no more—I should be getting back now anyway." He stepped to the side, finally letting Riku pass. "But I'll see you around, okay, pal?"
"Yeah, sure." He was so close to escape—so close; but then Sora called after him, "Hey, you never told me your name!"
He paused, lowering his hood so he could glance over his shoulder at the boy watching him expectantly. Nowadays, he normally kept that sort of stuff to himself—so as not to put down roots anywhere, to avoid loose ends that might come back to bite him…but something about those brilliant blue eyes got to him.
"…Riku," he replied softly. "My name is Riku."
-o-o-o-
"C'mon, Riku! Come play ball with us!"
The rough wood of his bedroom door pressed against his back…twilight cutting through his window…
"No, I…I'm not allowed out past dark. Hama says it's too dangerous…"
"Aw, but it's barely sundown…I know! I'll get my big brother to come along. It'll be safer then, right? We can go ask Hama for you—"
"Don't worry about it! It's fine…I…I have schoolwork to do anyway."
"…If you say so…"
Footsteps finally padding down the hallway...
"C'mon, guys…I don't think Riku likes us anymore…"
He couldn't believe what was going through his head. After all these years—after all the terrified faces and the betrayals, after all the friendships he'd had to suffocate just to protect everyone; to protect himself…he still had the nerve to hope. It was pathetic.
He'd met so many people crowned with a halo of apparent kindness; people he'd warmed up to, come to trust and like. People he'd tried—truly tried to shield from the truth, but had failed; people who saw what he really was and scorned him for it. That boy would be no different.
He'd figured that if he could just keep his secret well, secret, then he might stand a chance of holding on to someone. …But humans were a curious bunch. The more walls you built around something precious, the harder they worked to break in and see it. Well, they saw it, alright. Every single one of them, no matter what lengths he went to short of leaving forever. Most of them just shrieked and ran, others actually attacked. Either way, they all met unfortunate ends—which was the last thing he wanted.
He supposed it simply couldn't be helped; people couldn't care for him when they didn't understand him—and that included Sora.
…But once they understood him…
Riku sighed to himself, wandering down Market Street with his hood up and his head down. He clenched and unclenched his fists in his pockets, glaring at the pavement. Don't let him fool you. When it comes right down to it, he'll run. Just like everyone else. How could he possibly be any different?
A certain ache rose in his chest at such thoughts, a cold and certain pain that always seemed to spring up when reality came crashing down on him. He let it grow, let it churn, let it pull him down and down until the sunlight couldn't reach him through his own skin…
"I see you've met Sora."
Riku wouldn't have paid the guy a single glance if not for the mention of that name—he hated that his head snapped up at the sound of it, like a dog heeling to the call for dinner. Ugh.
He looked over at the speaker, a tall and rangy redhead—literally, his hair was red, like a freaking strawberry—propped in the entryway to a music store he'd been passing. Before he could stop himself, Riku huffed, "It was hard not to."
This earned him a laugh from Mr. Strawberry. "Yeah, he's a bit of a doozey." He popped a toothpick between his teeth and gnashed on it for a moment. "Nothin' like the other two."
Good God, there were more of them? Well, thinking back, Sora had mentioned something about brothers…
"He's a good kid, though."
"What?"
There was a pause while the redhead ground the toothpick in the corner of his mouth, seemingly bent on biting the thing in two. "Sora," he reiterated. "He's a good kid. A little perky for my taste, but I give credit where credit is due—guy's got a heart the size of this entire island."
"That's nice. Now if you don't mind, I have to go—"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the redhead held out a hand to stop him—Riku was growing really tired of being stopped. "Where's the fire, stranger?"
"Is everyone here this obnoxious?" Riku didn't go out of his way to be callous, but, come on, was it just him, or were these people clingy? None of them seemed to respect the sanctity of silence between strangers, which was something he relied on to navigate the world undisturbed. Everybody else got it! Why were people around here so…friendly?
"You call it obnoxious," the redhead quipped, "we call it hospitality."
"Hmph."
The redhead flipped his toothpick around, having gnawed one end of it all to hell. "I like you," he smiled. "Sulky, sarcastic, secretly nice—"
"Who said I was nice?"
"You did, when you rescued Sora without a second thought."
"Ugh."
"Anywho," the redhead continued, his speech slightly garbled by his devoted toothpick-chewing. "You seem like a cool guy. …Name's Axel. A-X-E-L." He tapped a finger to his temple, "Commit it to memory."
Riku rolled his eyes. "I'll work on that. Now, can I please go? I've been trying to get somewhere for thirty minutes."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Axel waved dismissively, finally spitting the butchered toothpick out of his mouth and leaning into the store. "Demyx, will you hurry up? I'm starvin' out here!"
A/N: Ah, typical me; can't go two chapters without my Axel. ^-^
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-Slay