Disclaimer: …I think you guys get the picture.

A/N: Okay, so it's been like a billion years again, and I'm really super sorry about that. I'm not dead, Life just did that stupid thing where it gets in the way and messes my shit up. BUT. That doesn't change the fact that you guys are completely awesome, so…ONWARD.

Bon à lire!

-Slay

A Day of Mercy

Chapter 18

Recollections

-o-o-o-

"Wow. You must be really hungry."

It wasn't until Sora said something that Riku realized he was eating twice his weight in carnival food. "Owh, yawh," he garbled through the remaining half of his fourth or fifth hotdog. He swallowed what he was chewing with an audible gulp. "I, uh…skipped breakfast."

"You don't say." Sora smiled and leaned across the table to smooth some condiments from Riku's mouth. "Think you'll be up for a few more games after this?"

"Sure." Riku continued to shamelessly pile generous slews of food into his mouth and Sora continued to laugh at the sight, but Riku wasn't bothered by it. If he was going to risk showing Sora his other form, he wanted to make sure all of his bases were covered. The monster would have no say in what happened that night, and if Sora was going to be driven away, it wasn't going to be because Riku attacked him out of hunger. Not a chance. This time, he would be in control. And this time…it just might work.

Riku had found, to his surprise and delight, that his confidence levels had been steadily rising as the afternoon pressed on into a late, sunny hour. For once, his thoughts weren't all anchored to his desperation to beat nightfall. He wouldn't want to be caught transforming anywhere public of course, but at the same time, he simply couldn't bring himself to feel paranoid in the slightest.

When the sun finally began to hang low and red, he and Sora would peel off from the crowds and cut through the woods, back to that dusty old mansion hidden quietly among the trees. Sora would ask why they were straying into such a creepy, deserted place, and Riku would tell him they needed somewhere private, and not to worry because there was no force in heaven or hell that would lead Riku to betray him.

He could picture Sora smiling at that; following him down the crepuscular forest path and probably rambling about something or other as daylight receded from their footsteps. He could see Sora standing in the fading spray of sun through the window, waiting, wondering, possibly worrying about what he was going to see. Then it would happen—the moment of truth would be upon them and, well…Riku couldn't really push his imagination past that.

So he pushed some more food into his mouth instead while Sora prattled on about their plans for the rest of the day. It wasn't until Riku had finally finished eating half the food in Twilight Town and they were marching back out to the midway that Sora said something odd.

"Riku, are you a wizard?"

When he was done choking on his own spit, Riku gave his friend a startled look. "What? No…Why would you ask…?"

Unbothered by Riku's suspiciously startled reaction, Sora just threw his hands behind his head and continued, "Well…it just came to me; I saw something weird at the concert yesterday—other than the dragon, I mean."

A lump settled in Riku's throat. "O-Oh?"

"Yeah. After I got hit, and you came to help me. But I'm not sure if it actually happened, or if I was just seeing things. I was pretty out of it. And now that I think about it, I guess it was pretty far-fetched…"

The lump calcified and plummeted into Riku's stomach. He swallowed past the rising panic in his throat. "What did you see?"

"Well…" Sora took a moment to sort out his thoughts while Riku's heart tapped out a painful rhythm in his chest. What had Sora seen? How much had it given away? Did it matter? Sora already seemed to think it was just his shaken imagination. Maybe Riku could help him play it off as nothing…

"Okay," Sora said resolutely. "I remember getting hit—then I blacked out for a second…and my head really hurt…and then you were there, and you said something to me, and then it got weird." His eyes darted around as they passed into the midway, as though he were summarizing a story played out on the walls of the buildings above. "It got…cold," he said thoughtfully. "I mean, I know I was in and out of consciousness and stuff, but…it seriously got cold around us. Like the temperature just plummeted all of a sudden. …And it got dark, and I thought I was just, y'know, passing out again, but…I could still see you." He glanced at Riku, who was too busy masking his impending freak-out to offer any kind of response.

Sora didn't seem to think too much of this, and went back to observing the street around them as he spoke. "I could see your face, like the darkness wasn't touching you. And then…out of nowhere, everything just…exploded."

"Exploded?"

"Yeah! Like a…like a blast of wind! It was intense. I really did pass out that time, and when I came around again, everything was okay." He paused. "I was covered in blood, but…y'know."

Riku gulped. He saw that? "Wow," he grasped at straws, trying not to sound like he'd been found out. "That really is weird, Sora."

"Right?" Sora reached out and pulled Riku to a halt. "But you wanna know what was weirder still?" He leaned in close and bore into Riku's eyes with an intensity that made him extremely nervous. He couldn't even vocalize a reply.

"In the middle of it all," Sora said quietly, intently. "I saw your face, and your eyes…" Riku found himself blinking more than usual as Sora scrutinized him, as if he expected the strange thing he'd seen yesterday to appear again. "They were…different."

"Different? …Different how?"

"They looked… Have you ever seen a cat's eyes? With the slits that are really creepy but kinda cool?"

Now it was nearly impossible to suppress the dread expanding in his chest. He'd…changed? Part of him had actually changed? And Sora had seen it happen? What the hell was he supposed to do? He did his best to act casual, but it was an uphill march. "You thought my eyes…looked like a cat's?"

"I know it's stupid." Sora sighed and turned away from him, continuing down the midway. "I must've hit my head pretty hard, huh?"

While it hurt to see Sora being so down on himself, Riku couldn't let him think something was up. "It's not your fault, Sora," he said soothingly, catching up with his friend and rubbing a hand over his back. "You were hurt pretty bad."

"Yeah…" Sora gave a soft laugh. "I mean, c'mon, you'd have to be some kind of…magical shape-shifter!" Sora was greatly amused by the thought, and didn't notice Riku blanching like a man on Death Row next to him.

Riku forced a squeaky laugh. "Yeah. Heh. Magical."

"…Unless…"

The serious note that had crept into Sora's tone gave Riku a start. He was giving him that inspective look again.

"Riku…"

"…Yes?"

"…Are you a magical shape-shifter?"

Riku was choking on his own spit again. "Wh-What?"

Sora started jumping up and down. "Ooh-ooh—let me guess what kind of animal you change into!"

"WHAT?"

"Okay, okay, ummm…" Sora rubbed his chin and looked Riku up and down, thinking deeply. "Oh! Can you turn into a cat? 'cause the eyes?" He pointed to his own eyes hopefully.

"What? Sora, I can't turn into a freaking—"

"How about a dog with cat eyes? Ooh, you'd look just like Willy! That'd be so cute!"

"You mean that weird stuffed thing you won at the shooting game?"

Despite Riku's deadpanning, Sora continued to bowl forward, throwing out a bunch of animals at random.

"A bird? A fish? A monkey? Oh, how about a dolphin? That'd be so cool—we could go swimming, and I could hang onto your dorsal fin and we could go jumping in the waves with other dolphins…"

Riku's head was spinning, and he was amazed that Sora had managed to compile such a long list without even coming close. Somewhere down the line he threw out the word "lizard", giving Riku a heart palpitation, but he didn't stay on the topic for long, and Riku decided he was still safe. Sora was just entertaining himself now. Riku pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Hey, Riku?"

"…Yes, Sora?"

"I think I figured out what you are."

"Oh, really?"

"Yep." Sora nodded triumphantly before jabbing an accusing finger in Riku's face. "You're a unicorn, aren't you, Riku?"

"…" Before Riku could so much as face-palm, Sora lunged around him without warning and hauled himself onto Riku's back.

"GIDDYUP!" The brunette bellowed, latching his legs around Riku's waist so he couldn't be shaken off.

"DAMMIT SORA!"

"ONWARD!"

"GET OFF ME!"

Sora made no move to get off of Riku's back and gave his hair a disciplinary yank. "You're awfully grumpy for a unicorn."

Deciding that resistance was futile, Riku sighed and took hold of Sora's legs, carrying him along the street like it was nothing.

"Hey, Riku?"

"Yes, Sora?"

"You'd make a pretty unicorn."

"Thank you, Sora."

The brunette hugged him around the shoulders, and they continued along in companionable silence for a few minutes before Sora scared the crap out of Riku by spasming and shouting out, "There it is!"

"GAH! SORA! WHAT?"

Sora pointed ahead of them, directing Riku's attention to a tall, colorful contraption that was marked in increments that were labeled things like "Grandma" and "Bodybuilder", with a flashing sign at the very top that read "Test You Strength!" Beside the contraption was a loud display with an equally flashy sign, "Score 'Hercules' to Win a Range Tech Double Plus: Master Edition!" Riku noticed that "Hercules" was posted at the very top of the machine—nearly twenty feet up the shaft.

"It's like, the coolest skateboard ever," Sora crooned, leaning over Riku's shoulder. "And it's really expensive." He climbed off Riku's back and they joined the moderate crowd of people surrounding the game. "I've been trying to win it for a while now. I just can't seem to hit it hard enough…"

As they and the other spectators watched, a man stepped before the contraption and accepted a huge, heavy mallet from the vendor. Using every muscle in his body, the man gave the mallet a mighty swing and brought it crashing down onto a pressure plate at the foot of the contraption. A big, red arrow went soaring up the levels, stopping just above the third level from the top ("Big Body") before falling down again. At first, the man seemed disappointed at not hitting the prize level, but the swarm of applause seemed to brighten his spirits as he returned the mallet and sauntered off.

"I came really close last year," Sora was saying. "Almost as well as that guy. …Pretty impressive, huh, Riku?" He added that last part with a bit of vaunt, turning to the silverette for some kind of praise; but Riku wasn't about to humor him.

"Wait…You're actually going to do that?"

Sora's face fell. "Well…yeah. How else am I supposed to win that skateboard?"

"I dunno…I mean, what about your back—"

For the first time since Riku had met him, Sora's demeanor completely dissolved. He threw his hands up and rolled his eyes crossly. "Not this again!"

"C'mon, Sora—you could barely walk a straight line this morning, and now you honestly think I'm gonna let you swing around some giant hammer—"

"How many times do I have to tell you? My freaking back is fine. It hasn't bothered me since we left the house!"

"What if you throw it out again?"

Sora snorted. "You're making it sound like I'm some old guy. This isn't Mr. Jenkins we're talking about…"

"Sora, I'm serious. I don't want you to get hurt. Here, why don't I give it a try, and—"

"No," Sora said firmly. "I'm doing this myself." With that he turned on his heel and started for the vendor, pausing just long enough to give Riku a warning shove when the other boy tried to stop him. "Sora, please. Just try and see it—" But it was no use. Sora was out of his reach and before long he had that ridiculously large mallet in his grasp. He and the vendor were laughing familiarly while Riku's stomach did an uncomfortable twist. The medics at the concert had said he'd be fine, but Riku had this terrible feeling that they must have missed something.

While his head was filling up with various and increasingly creative images of Sora getting himself maimed, the real Sora stepped up to the pressure plate, lugging the mallet behind him. He hefted it up in his grip and weighed it—gauging his swing. He seemed awfully focused, and for a second his eyes flicked over to Riku, and a new resolve settled into his face. He leered at the mallet in his hands, then at the pressure plate, then at the very highest level on the shaft. Hercules.

Without warning Sora lifted the mallet up and gave it a test swing. Then, in a motion that seemed impossibly fluid, he hoisted the mallet over his head, spun it around and brought it crashing down onto the pressure plate with so much force that his feet left the ground. The red arrow went shooting up the shaft, flying past Grandma and Bodybuilder, up past Big Body and straight to Hercules.

But it didn't stop there. The mechanism pulling the arrow broke against the highest level, causing a piece of metal to go flying off the top of the mechanism with a loud, sharp clang!

Sora dropped the mallet and stared in awe like everyone else as if he hadn't been expecting to do that. One long moment of stunned silence drew over the crowd before it exploded with jubilated shouts and cheers and whistling. Sora got his skateboard, and after about fifteen minutes, Riku managed to get his jaw off the sidewalk.

A/N: Baaaaaah shooooooort. But better than nothing, right? Chapter 19 will get here eventually. Review for a chakram cookie~ Flame for a chakram to the face!

DON'T GIVE UP ON ME! ;_;

-Slay