Disclaimer: I own a really nice pencil, but not Kingdom Hearts. *cries forever*

A/N: Alright, the past couple chapters felt filler-ish, so now we'll be leaping back into a moving plotline with slightly longer chapters! YAY! I literally stayed up until 5am writing this for you people. I hope you're happy.

Bon à lire!

-Slay

A Day of Mercy

Chapter 7

Cold Hands

-o-o-o-

"Y'know, Riku…I think that's the first time I've seen you smile."

It was probably the first time he'd smiled period. Riku honestly couldn't remember the last time he was happy enough to bother with the muscle movement. But ever since he showed up at Sora's door and found out that Sora did not, in fact hate him, he simply couldn't stifle the little murmurs of joy that kept bubbling up from some unknown place.

The smiles were small and sparing, but they were still adventurous compared to his usual facial expressions. He liked the way it felt to smile—it was like stretching his legs after a long night's sleep. Refreshing and strangely familiar, despite the fact that he was miserably out of practice. He also liked the way Sora's countenance seemed to brighten every time he smiled, like it was truly infectious and every pleasant feeling was mutual. It was strange, but he liked it.

Shortly after Sora invited him to stick around, the two of them discovered that Riku was tragically handicapped at videogames. All of them. Driving, combat, role play, it didn't matter. He failed almost every task, however trivial, and lost every single round to Sora, who apparently wasn't even that good. In his defense, Riku had never bothered with the stupid things, seeing very little point in sitting and pressing a bunch of colorful buttons while rotting his eyes in front of a television screen, and he made this perfectly clear after losing his twelfth consecutive street fighting match to the brunette.

"You'll get the hang of it," Sora assured him, though by now he was way past feeling sorry for Riku, and was simply basking in his ill-gotten glory, taking the opportunity to lord his "superior" skills over an inexperienced opponent. Jerk.

"Can we do something else?" Riku was tired of failing all over the place. He threw his controller across the floor and flopped backwards, demonstrating that he was done with this nonsense.

Sora laughed at his dejected antics and switched off the console. "I wonder if you'd be any better at board games?" He mused, rounding up their controllers and storing them on a shelf.

"Oh, no," Riku objected. "I think we should do something outside." He was officially paranoid that, having seen how inept he was at videogames, Sora would start suggesting other activities that he would probably suck eggs at.

Riku didn't like sucking eggs.

Especially not in front of Sora.

"It's a nice day," he pressed. "We shouldn't be wasting it indoors."

"Fair enough; so what do you want to do?"

Good question.

"Er…what's there to do?"

"Well," Sora began, but was cut off by someone sweeping in the front door. They looked up to the two newcomers making themselves at home in the foyer, dumping their bags and stepping out of their shoes.

"Hey, Roxas. Axel."
"Sora!" The blonde rushed over to his twin and started fussing over him. "Did everything go okay while I was gone? Are Mom and Cloud back yet? How long were you by yourself? Did you go into town today? You're sure nothing weird happened? Nothing at all?"

Sora made a face and shooed his brother away. "Yes! Stop treating me like a five-year-old. Seriously, what's your deal? Look, Riku's here and everything!"

"Riku…" Roxas mumbled oddly, slowly looking to Sora's side to find that the aforementioned party was indeed present. Riku waved awkwardly, and Roxas replied with a vague incline of his head, eyes traveling distractedly. "I'm…gonna go lie down. Long trip, y'know…" He drifted across the room and trudged airily upstairs, hazily unaware of the concerned looks stuck to his back.

"…Say, Axel?" Sora tore his eyes away from the staircase once Roxas was gone. "Did something happen while you guys were out of town?"

The redhead didn't respond at first, producing a toothpick—surprise, surprise—from his pocket and popping it in his mouth. "Yeeah," he drawled uneasily, still focused on the empty staircase. "We actually witnessed a gunfight on our way to the concert yesterday. Nothing happened—to us, I mean. But Roxas is still pretty shaken up about it. It was bad."

As he spoke, Riku found himself watching Axel very closely. Something about him was…off. The way he pinned his eyes to the stairs, the way his words tapered aloofly from the corner of his mouth, the detached leisure in his posture…

Axel was lying. Royally.

"Oh," Sora fell hook, line and sinker for whatever cover Axel was pulling. He tossed a pitying glance at where Roxas had made his exit. "I understand. …But still, I wasn't even there. I don't see why he's so worried about me."

Axel brought his attention back to Sora, harlequin eyes tempered by a shadow of maturity. "I know it's annoying," he sympathized, "but you should be thankful to have a brother who cares about you so much."

Something dark brushed through Sora's features, and he angled his eyes to the floor like he was ashamed. "Y-Yeah…" After a moment his expression lightened. "I am," he said sincerely.

This tugged a warm smile out of Axel, who ruffled Sora's hair affectionately as he strolled past. "Good deal." He started climbing the stairs, flipping the toothpick around for a new chewing session. "I'll go make sure Roxy hasn't picked up one of those funks of his."

"Okay. Oh, and tell him we're heading out—and that we'll be fine!" Sora requested pointedly, getting to his feet. Axel nodded obligingly and disappeared, leaving Sora to extend a helping hand to Riku. "Let's go!"

Without even thinking, Riku accepted the gesture, and was sadly unsurprised when Sora jumped at the touch of their skin.

"Riku, your hands are freezing!"

"Oh, yeah, erm…" Riku helped himself up and wrung his hands embarrassedly. This wasn't the first time he'd encountered this problem. He couldn't even begin to tally how many times he'd driven off people's affections because of his stupid, icy skin. People didn't jump at the opportunity to hold cold hands, and it alienated him very effectively. Affection called for warmth. Warmth wasn't something he had in great supply. "I run a little cold," he said lamely.

"No kidding."

Riku was prepared to bury his stupid cold hands in his stupid cold pockets, but was stopped by Sora's warm touch on his fingers and palms. "…Sora?"

"Let's get you warmed up!" Sora beamed, rubbing their hands together and breathing over Riku's knuckles until heat kindled under his skin, growing and spreading until he swore he could feel it in his face. It was such a foreign sensation—so close and comforting, like he had been drawn in from a blizzard and planted by a roaring hearth.

"There," Sora sighed, cosseting Riku's hands appreciatively, scanning for any last cold spots and seeming satisfied. "All better." He flashed another smile before pulling Riku toward the door. "Now let's get going! I'm sure there's plenty of stuff going on around town, since the festival's starting tomorrow."

The festival.

"Uh—speaking of which…" Riku stopped them half way through the screen door, watching the ground with a disproportionate amount of interest. "I don't suppose that offer of yours is still…?"

Sora's face lit up like the ocean under a rising sun. "Are you saying you've changed your mind about spending the festival with us?"

"Well, I…That is…I don't have anything else going on, so…I mean…I guess…" He couldn't help but notice that they were still holding hands. It was very distracting. "I er…I don't want to impose…"

"Are you kidding? The more the merrier!" Sora was completely undisturbed by the hand-holding thing and continued guiding them into the streets of Twilight Town. "You could probably stay with us, if you wanted."

"Oh, no—that's fine…" Why were they still holding hands? Why couldn't Riku bring himself to let go? Why did his self-control have to take a long walk of a short pier whenever Sora was around? Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.

"Mmk," Sora hummed. "Man, this year's festival is gonna be awesome!"

"Yeah…" Riku still felt dazed and disoriented, but through the muddled thoughts in his brain, another small grin emerged. "Yeah, it is."

-o-o-o-

He knew following Lea had been a good idea. Who knew how much more time they would have wasted searching, were it not for Lea's unwitting help? Kadaj smiled impishly from the upper level of the thoroughfare, feral eyes keeping track of a particular pair as they wended their way through the crowds below. We've finally found you, little brother.

"That boy he's with," a voice lilted beside him, "you don't think he's going to be a problem, do you?"

He turned to Yazoo, shaking his head consolingly. "No. In fact, he may even prove to be rather useful."

"So let's go get them, already!" A figure made to charge past him, but Kadaj stopped him with the wave of an arm. "Patience, Loz. Our little brother is a special case, remember? We need to be careful around him."

Loz stood down, scowling.

"Don't cry, Loz," Yazoo jeered.

"I'm not crying!"

Kadaj ignored their squabbling and focused on his silver-haired kin across the way. "Just wait, little brother," he swore smoothly. "Our family will be whole again soon."

A/N: I anticipate that the chapters to come will be growing in length as this "plot" thing develops. I've had people refuse to touch me because of my cold hands. It sucks. Don't do that. T.T

Thanks for reading!

Review for a chakram cookie~

Flame for a chakram to the face!

Until next time, kiddies!

-Slay