Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, OR Final Fantasy, OR the song lyrics…or a car. *hack* But that's beside the point.
A/N: I know this chapter took an especially long time to post, but I'm not gonna apologize because I meant to put more effort into it. As I've been saying, I'm trying to up the ante, if you will. …and it's finals week. *dies* So hopefully it was worth the wait.
Also, it has not escaped my attention that this chapter's number coincides with my favorite pyro. It has absolutely nothing to do with the story, but no self-respecting Axel fan girl would let that go unnoticed. :P
Useless Fact of the Week That Doesn't Get Posted Every Week: Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
Bon à lire!
-Slay
A Day of Mercy
Chapter 8
Notes & Letters (Part I)
-o-o-o-
Riku had three things on his mind. Three concerns that were stuck like splinters in his thoughts, distracting him and kicking up a cloud of confusion in his head.
One, why had his amulet not only glowed, but spoken to him the other day? Two, what was that Axel guy covering up with his "gunfight" story that had Sora's brother acting so weird? And three, who had slipped this folded letter into his things while he was asleep?
The thought of someone snooping around while he was transformed was unnerving enough, as was the fact that he hadn't sensed them at all; but what disturbed him the most were the contents of the letter itself.
In slick and slanted hand, a single line at the center of the page read, I wonder what yours will be?
…What his what would be? Who the hell had left this for him? How much did they know about him? How did they even know about him? He'd been just as careful as he always was…
Riku sighed and folded the letter twice, sliding it into his pocket for later examination. As unsettling as it was, it would have to wait. He'd promised to meet Sora outside Central Station at nine, and it was already a quarter 'til. He'd better get going. Apparently the festival kick-off downtown was a "completely awesome" event that he "couldn't afford to miss", so Sora insisted they show up early and get good seats.
'Good seats' for what, Riku had no idea—and Sora wouldn't tell him anything.
"You're gonna love it; that's all you need to know," he'd teased, poking Riku in the forehead—which Riku did not appreciate, just for the record. "Be at the station by nine 'o' clock tomorrow morning."
That was proving to be more of a challenge than Riku had anticipated, and during his jog through the forest , his previous concerns were shoved aside by a concoction of curiosity and dread at what he'd gotten himself into with this festival.
-o-o-o-
There were more people at the station than Riku had anticipated. A lot more.
Throngs and waves of bodies poured in from the streets, washing up against the station doors and packing in tight as people trickled through the ticket counters one by one, the venders unable to process them all fast enough. Every damn person in Twilight Town had to be there! They weren't all going to the kick-off, were they? If they were, Riku might have to take a rain check—he hated crowds.
"There he is—Riku! Over here!"
He was relieved to see Sora waving at him from the other side of the plaza, where the hordes thinned out by a barrier overlooking the ocean. Riku managed to shoulder his way deftly through the masses, and was instantly intimidated by the huge gaggle of people standing around the brunette. Sora had neglected to mention that they would be going with nine other people.
"Right on time!" Sora bubbled, grabbing Riku's arm and hauling him into the thick of the group. "I know it's early, but it's totally worth it!"
"Who's your friend, Sora?"
"This is the guy I was telling you about! Kairi, Riku. Riku, Kairi," Sora introduced pleasantly, then proceeded to gesture at everyone else, rattling off names without a single breath. "You already know Axel and Roxas—that's Axel's friend, Demyx and their friend Zexion and that's Naminé—Kairi's cousin—and that's Hayner and Pence and Olette who we've known since we moved here when I was seven—I told you about that, right? We met in elementary school, and…"
Riku's head was spinning. There was no way in fiery hell he was going to remember their names, except for Axel and Roxas. As Sora continued to ramble about…something, Riku just stood like a complete dolt, returning the swarm of friendly smiles, waves and what's up's with unreadable nods of his head and a noncommittal smile that said he really didn't want to be there. No one seemed to mind—or even register—his blatant social awkwardness, and after a few chatter-filled minutes, some camo-clad blonde spoke up, grabbing everyone's attention. "Okay, guys—I've got something to tell everybody."
Was it…Kairi? Maybe? There were only three girls there—certainly he could keep them straight… Well, whoever the hell she was, she rolled her eyes. "Hayner! Don't tell us you forgot to buy tickets again?"
There was a round of exasperated groans, and someone—Demyx?—whined, "We don't have to sit in the nosebleed section again, do we?"
"Au contraire," Hayner mused, producing a full hand of narrow tickets and waving them for everyone to see. "Who's your buddy, who's your pal?"
Roxas snatched the tickets and inspected them critically for a second before his jaw dropped. "You got us into the Pit?!"
"WHAT?"
Everyone moved at once, scrambling to see it for themselves. Riku leapt backward, scared for his life. Sora hopped on his brother's back and leaned determinedly over his shoulder for a better look. "No way!"
"Hayner, you're the best!"
"These must've cost a fortune!"
"I heard the Pit sold out in three days flat this year!"
"How did you even get these?"
Hayner polished his nails proudly on his shirt. "I have my ways."
"Yeah, or your dad knows the owner of the venue," someone countered, making everyone—except Riku, who was still startled—bust out laughing.
"Dad heckled him for months, and he finally caved!"
"That is so awesome!"
"We've never gotten into the Pit before! See, Riku, I told you this was gonna be the best festival ever! …Riku? Oh, there you are! What're you doin' back there, buddy?"
Sora walked over while the others debated who should be responsible for the tickets on the way down and clapped Riku on the shoulder. "You look spooked," he chuckled.
He was spooked. "You guys are pretty jazzed about this…thing… Um, what, exactly, are we doing?"
One of the girls popped up, her eyes alight with excitement. "Every year, they get some really amazing band to play downtown at the Fantasy Dome. This year it's Yuna and the Gullwings! They're incredible! And they're so popular, I was afraid we wouldn't be able to get in at all. But Hayner really came through for us this time!"
Who-na and the what-wings? "Oh, uh…that's cool."
Hayner had snatched the tickets back ("I was able to hang onto 'em for this long. I think I can make it to the concert.") and was now fanning himself absently with them. "He didn't know how many of us there were gonna be, so he just rounded it up to twelve, which means we have enough for Sora's friend Rocky to go with one left over."
"Riku."
"Yeah?"
"No, I was correcting Hayner—he called you Rocky."
"He did?" Riku hadn't been paying any attention. He was too busy thinking of how today was probably going to kill him.
Sora rolled his eyes. "So what're we gonna do with the extra ticket?"
"Ayeuhoh," Hayner shrugged. "Sell it, I guess."
"Or we could lord it over some desperate soul and make them our bitch for the day."
"Axel, that's terrible."
"It was just a suggestion!"
"Fine. It was a terrible suggestion."
"Why're you always busting my chops, Rox—"
"Guys!" Hayner stacked the tickets together and stowed them in his pocket. "You know the lot is gonna be swamped with people who don't have tickets—I'll just pawn it off on the way in."
"Speaking of swamped…"
Everyone turned warily toward the locust-like plague of people infesting the train station, churning and humming with hundreds of bodies and jubilant voices.
"Man, if we wait for a train the concert's gonna be over by the time we get there," a heavier guy in red sighed.
"Guess we'll just have to split up and drive. Here, everyone take your own ticket—we can just meet inside. It'll be easier."
Riku was handed a ticket, and proceeded to stare dumbly at it until he heard, "Sora, Riku—c'mon. You can ride with us." He looked over to see Axel hail them with a toothpick before turning and sauntering off, Roxas following suit.
Riku didn't move until Sora did, feeling like a dazed and wobbling colt in the situation and not liking it one bit.
-o-o-o-
The four of them meandered through the swimming streets until they arrived at the foot of an apartment complex, where a less-than-red, four-door hunk of junk sat in the adjacent parking lot.
"Has anyone ever told you your car's a piece of crap?" Roxas jeered, tugging insistently on the handle of the locked passenger-side door. "I'm surprised it even runs."
"Don't talk about Betsy that way," Axel chided, digging his key into the lock and cranking it until it begrudgingly clicked open. "She's a good car. …Most of the time." He thumped the roof encouragingly and got in, unlocking the other doors and firing up the engine—which snorted to life after three failed attempts.
Riku had never ridden in a car before, and this became painfully obvious after he crawled awkwardly into the backseat and started fumbling stupidly with one of the seatbelts. He pulled it out way too far the first time, let it retract, then went to pull again, only to have the stupid thing refuse and snap stubbornly against his frustrated tugging, completely stuck. He found himself curled uncomfortably, leaning against the stupid back of the stupid passenger's seat with his stupid feet up, trying with all his stupid might to un-stick the stupid seatbelt so he could move on with his stupid life stupid.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
And now Sora was laughing at him.
Lovely.
"R-Riku…" He chortled into his fist, like that somehow made the whole thing less embarrassing. "You…You're trying too ha-ha-hard…"
"Sora, that doesn't make any sense." If anything, he wasn't trying hard enough. What was the other end of this thing attached to, a ten-ton weight?
"N-No…H-Here…" Still laughing, Sora took the seatbelt out of Riku's white-knuckled grip and let it retract against the middle seat. "That wasn't even the right one," he giggled. "Now turn around and sit normally." Riku did as he was told, watching with a grimace as Sora reached across him, leaning close—like, really close—and pulling on another seatbelt by the window that Riku hadn't even seen. He drew the belt calmly across Riku's chest and buckled it by his hip, all without a single problem.
"There. See?" Sora cinched the belt more snugly before leaning away and strapping himself in, staying in the middle of the seat instead of moving to the other window. "Easy peasy."
"Hmph."
"Okay, kiddos," Axel announced, pulling out of the parking lot while Roxas fiddled with the radio. "Get comfy; it's an hour and a half to The City That Never Was—traffic permitting. I hope you like staticky country music."
"You listen to country music?"
Roxas craned around his seat and grinned at Sora sardonically. "No, but it's the only station this shitbox gets."
"Be nice to Betsy!"
Oh, brother… Riku whacked his forehead against the window and glared at the scenery slipping by.
A concert, huh?
He loved hanging around behind the concert hall. Silk-voiced singers and brilliant musicians frequented the chasm of its stage, their ministrations trailing through the moonbeams and lulling him to sleep in spite of his curse…
"Huh?"
Riku was snapped out of it by a sudden weight—Sora had nodded off, his head falling softly on Riku's shoulder, his low and breathy snores rattling in the silverette's ear.
"S-S-S-Sora?" He shifted nervously at the contact, but Sora didn't stir. Instead he nuzzled his ear familiarly against Riku's shoulder, humming in his sleep. One of the brunette's hands fell out of his lap and tumbled between them, landing over Riku's wrist and causing him to jump.
He glanced helplessly at the front of the car, only to find Axel and Roxas bickering like an old married couple—which they seemed to do a lot.
"For the last time, Axel, you can't go around setting shit on fire whenever you feel like it!"
"Hey! I was doing the city a favor; that building was atrocious to begin with."
"It was a daycare center!"
"Nobody was inside!"
"You have a problem, Axel. Get help."
Riku rolled his eyes and looked down at his newly-acquired companion, his chin brushing soft brown hair and stirring up a scent of coastal shampoo with the slightest virile edge. He sighed.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Without really thinking about it, he wrapped his hand around Sora's; their fingers folded together automatically, sending a wave of warmth and static through Riku's system. He breathed tiredly through his nose, fluttering Sora's bangs in the process.
What does it matter?
Since he'd met Sora, he found that he preferred to simply live for the moment and not worry about what crushing pain the future would bring. It was hard to push the inevitable out of his mind, but he was so desperate for relief that he let Sora pull him out of himself, regardless of the ramifications. When he was with Sora, there was no pain, no aching or stress—other than the impending destruction of their doomed friendship. But even that was still impending. It hadn't happened yet, and if Riku could just keep his guard up, it wouldn't have to happen for a long while.
If he could keep his guard up.
Which he really couldn't. Not around Sora.
…But that was a concern for the future. For now, he had Sora, no strings attached, and in spite of himself, he was actually pretty happy. Even if he did make a complete ass of himself on a regular basis. He supposed that was what made it special, though. The fact that Sora welcomed his blunders with kindness rather than mockery spoke to a deep and accepting nature that Riku had, until recently, never seen.
He dared not hope that Sora would understand, for fear that hoping would exacerbate the pain of his betrayal, but the thought never did leave his mind. What if he really would understand? What if… …What if…
Riku let his cheek drop against the top of Sora's head, rubbing his thumb over the boy's knuckle thoughtfully and watching the world fly by beyond the window.
I wonder what yours will be?
He was seriously starting to worry about that letter, terribly aware of its presence in his pocket. As he was mulling over it, something strange popped into his head. He suddenly felt a panging concern for Sora, like the author of that letter was targeting him.
But they weren't. They were targeting Riku. The whole situation had nothing to do with Sora.
…Still, if it ever came down to that, he knew he'd fight tooth and nail to keep Sora safe, to hell with how doomed their relationship was. These thoughts dragged through his conscious, heavy and slow. He realized just how relaxing the reeling scenery outside was, and with the warmth of Sora's skin still cradled in his hand, Riku let himself slip into a dense and dreamless sleep, his worries placated by the familiar breathing against his collar.
-o-o-o-
"…Would you look at those two?" Axel chortled around the toothpick in his teeth, stealing glimpses in the rearview mirror as Betsy tore along the Highwind Turnpike. Roxas peered into the backseat and smiled. "Cute."
"Nothing like how we met."
"Psht—nooo…"
"Y'know, if I remember correctly, you ran away from me," Axel sighed dramatically, lifting a hand to his brow forlornly, "—like I was some terrible monster or something."
Roxas scoffed. "And if I remember correctly, you were trying to eat me!"
Axel dropped his thespian act and chuckled under his breath. "Well, maybe if you didn't look so darn delectable!" He threw himself over the gearshift and grabbed Roxas' chin, laying a noshing kiss against the blonde's jaw as if to devour it, dropping his toothpick in one of the cup holders as he did.
"AH! A-ha-xel!" Roxas shuddered, and not all that unpleasantly, but had to shove off the zealous advance with a yelp. "Eyes on the road, you idiot!"
Axel laughed and pulled away. Though his attention returned to his driving, he left his knuckles grazing the side of the blonde's neck—which Roxas didn't seem to mind, so long as they weren't swerving to their deaths.
After a few minutes of silence—well, aside from the crackling din of country music—Roxas took the redhead's hand in his own and peeked into the backseat, where Sora and Riku were still sleeping like rocks.
He turned forward again and kept his voice low. "Have you heard from…?"
"No," Axel replied carefully, "and I haven't seen head or tail of the gang, either. Maybe she's managed to lead them off the trail again."
"Again?"
"Yeah." Harlequin eyes darted to the rearview mirror, watching for any sign that the boys in the back might be awake enough to hear. When he was satisfied that they weren't, he continued in the same, mindful voice, "Apparently they've been on the prowl for the past couple of years and she's been busting her tail trying to keep them at bay. …They must be getting smarter about it. She says this is the closest they've ever come to finding him."
"Really?" Worry flitted through Roxas' eyes, and he couldn't stop the emphatic way he turned to the back, eying the sleeping pair with palpable concern. He looked at Axel. "Should we be doing this? If they're still in the city…"
Axel shook his head and gave Roxas' hand a squeeze. "I doubt it. And even if they are still creeping around, they won't pull anything in a crowd like the one at the concert."
"…Why not? From what I've heard, they don't care how much trouble they cause, and they definitely don't care about who sees."
"True," Axel allowed, letting go of Roxas' hand so he could steady his grip on the wheel as they entered into a more chaotic stretch of turnpike. "But it's not like them to do things the messy way. Trust me. If they can do this quietly, they will. Makes 'em seem more clever."
Roxas wasn't very comforted by the thought, but it did mollify him enough to ease back into his seat. His head dropped to one side, eyes catching still-frame glimpses of the inland forests they passed. "What if…" he began a little distantly, then gathered up the rest of the question and continued more solidly, "What if we're there too long and you-know-what happens?"
"We won't be."
"Axel…"
"But if we are," Axel pressed, "I do have a backup plan." He reached over and ruffled Roxas' flaxen spikes. "So don't worry your pretty little head about it."
Roxas snorted at the choice of words, but then a stubborn smile worked its way into his features. "Okay, Axel," he drawled. "I won't."
A/N: 3,179 words not including author's notes. *passes out*
I originally intended for this all to be one chapter, but then it would be like, 10k words, and I'm pretty sure that would kill me. Massive chapters are more fun to read than they are to write. Trust me. Besides, I think it works out better for the plot this way.
As of posting this chapter, ADoM has had 976 views since I posted it in November. If I were a merciless person I would hold out for 1,000. But honestly, I'm not here to grub for views. I'm here to write fan fiction like a nerd.
…Still, 1,000 views would be pretty sweet.
Just sayin'.
:D
Anywho, the good news here is that Chapter 9/Part II is definitely underway because I know exactly where I'm going with it. So stay tuned!
Thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting and following! IT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME! …Which is a little pathetic, but, hey. It keeps me occupied.
Review for a chakram cookie~
Flame for a chakram to the face!
Jaa ne!
-Slay