Chapter 3: New acquaintances
Riku was a man of his word, Sora found out.
After his last class of the day was done, Sora headed out for the main entrance and just like he'd said he would, Riku stood there waiting for him, casually leaning against the wall next to the doors.
Sora couldn't help but noticing the hungry looks his friend was getting from girls and boys alike as they passed him on their way out.
Riku was good-looking, tall and slender, but fit and sporting a well built body. What drew the most attention though, was his aura of total self-awareness and control. In short; he was everything you wanted in a guy. Girls wanted his attention and love, while boys simply wanted to be him.
Sora swallowed down a ball of nervousness that was threatening to build up in his throat and approached the silver-haired young man.
"Finally!" Riku breathed out with a smile and threw out his arms dramatically when he spotted Sora coming towards him. "I was starting to think you'd bailed out on me."
Before Sora had a chance to react and get away, Riku suddenly stepped up to him and put an arm across his shoulders.
"Are you up for some sleeping?" Riku said in a gitty voice and Sora could do nothing but smile back at him.
"Yeah, I guess. I'm tired enough, I tell you," Sora answered and got a nod from his friend in response.
"Then come with me and I'll make it happen!" he said, motioning Sora forward by the pressure of his arm still slung across the somewhat shorter guy's shoulders.
"But don't you think it'd be better if I just got home and..." Sora tried to object, but was shushed by Riku's finger as it was pressed against his lips
"Now we can do this the hard way, or the easy way. You obviously aren't sleeping all that well at your own place, right?" Riku reasoned slowly, winking at him with one eye before he continued. " Besides, I don't bring a lot of friends over to my place, so would you please do this for my sake, if not for your own?"
Sora looked at him as if he was seeing him for the first time.
"You don't... why? I mean, I thought you had a lot of friends..."
Riku slowly shook his head in reply, and for a moment his features were covered by a shade of sadness.
Sora suddenly realised he'd actually never seen Riku really hang out with anyone, except for himself.
"Uhm..." Sora hummed in a desperate try to fill out the sudden silence.
"Look, you're the only guy around here who doesn't know everything about me and whom I can talk to without risking to get forced into a closer contact than necessary," Riku said in a low voice. "I like your company, ok? You're honest, funny and just stupid enough to not care about asking who I am."
"Uhm...thanks, I guess..." Sora mumbled and looked down at his shoes as they walked. Maybe he should've asked Riku who he was when they'd first met, but the situation had been so overwhelming back then that he'd simply forgot all about it.
"Don't get me wrong," Riku added quickly," I'm not a bad person. It's just that everybody seem to think I'm either a psychopathic maniac, since I'm always by myself, or that I'm too high up on the social scale for anyone to even address me without being allowed to do so." Riku looked at Sora. "Am I making any sense at all to you?"
Sora tore his eyes away from the constant stare on his shoes and let them meet with Riku's.
"I, I think so. You're alone because people are afraid of you?"
"More or less, yes," Riku admitted in a sigh. Then he smiled softly. "But you're not."
Sora gave this notion a thought and started to wonder whether or not following this guy home was a good thing.
"Should I be?" he asked, feeling a tad stupid for doing so, but he couldn't help wanting to know for sure.
Riku burst out in a short and hearty laugh.
"You see? That's what I mean – you're a good guy, Sora. Almost too good for your own safety. But don't worry, I'm alright. I don't mean to do anything bad to you, I just wanna' help you."
Sora thought about asking why, but decided not to, and nodded instead to show him that he understood. They walked on in silence for a few minutes, Riku leading the way by the means of almost invisible nods in the right direction.
After a while Sora started to realize he didn't recognize neighbourhood they were in.
The high-rise houses had been replaced by high fences and brick walls circling big, exclusive villas in different styles and pale colours. For some reason Sora was starting to feel like he had been left unknowing of a lot of things when it came to Riku, like the fact that he lived in the Fifth District, with the really rich inhabitants of the city. Suddenly Sora became unusually aware of his clothes and what they looked like in comparison of the ones that Riku was wearing. Sora's baggy black pants, heavy sports boots in a former brilliant but now rather dusty yellow colour and his open black and white short-sleeved hooded jacket were all a bit worn and faded in the colours. Even the fairly new navy blue sleeveless sweater he wore underneath the jacket appeared a bit shabby after having paid a visit to his skills with the washing machine only two days ago.
Riku, on the other hand, looked as if he'd just stepped out of a fashion magazine. Everything on him - from the light purple sneakers and the matching pants, to the raven black sleeveless zipper polo and the ivory white jacket vest - looked brand new.
"Uhm... Riku, could you tell me something?" Sora asked a bit hesitatingly after a few more minutes of considering all the alternatives as of how Riku's clothes came to be such news to him.
"What do you want to know?" Riku asked with a smile.
"Are you rich or something?"
This lured another moment of laughing out of the taller of the two young men.
"What's so funny?" Sora asked a bit touchy.
"I'm sorry Sora, but you don't notice very much about what goes on over at the university, do you?" Riku replied as he dried a tear from the corner of his eye, still grinning widely.
"No," Sora answered a little grumpily. He didn't like being enlightened on his own naivety. It made him feel just a tad stupid.
"Don't get me wrong," Riku added when he heard the tone in his voice and saw his sullen face. "I'm just not used to people not knowing this about me."
"Well, then, let me remind you of the fact that I don't know shit about you, other than you being the only guy in school who dared to back me up on my first day in town!" Sora muttered. "All this," he made a motion with his hands to point out their surroundings, "is BIG news to me, ok? I live in the friggin' Second District and the only reason I can afford the small apartment I have there is because I'm on a scholarship and my dad has some connections at work who let me live in their building for half the usual rent!"
Riku listened to him in silence until he'd finished.
"So you're saying...?"
"I'm freaked out by this neighbourhood and I would like to know if there is anything else that I should know about you before we get to your place and I get it shoved in my face!" Sora burst out with frustration.
Riku calmly nodded.
"I guess you're right. I'm just a little new o having to explain things about myself to anyone."
"No shit Sherlock!" Sora muttered.
"Ok, I don't think there are any other major things to warn you about, apart from my family, so here it is. Mom's a fashion designer over at The Three Fairies, and dad's the head of the Traverse Travels and sort of owns the airport..."
Sora tried not to show any sign of surprise or of being impressed, but he couldn't help his chin dropping at the last part. Riku didn't comment on it, however.
"As for the rest of the family, I've got one sister, Naminé, and my brother..."
Just as they rounded a pillar to enter a huge front yard of emerald green grass, Riku was interrupted by a tennis ball that would have hit Sora straight on the nose, had not Riku seen it coming and quickly pulled him away from it.
The result of this was that the ball continued its route of flying out to the street, and Sora found himself to be for a short moment enclosed by Riku's muscular arms, tightly pressed up against his chest.
"...my brother is an asshole," Riku finished his sentence and glared at someone coming towards them in a jog.
Sora suddenly found himself in a loss for words as he saw the other guy approaching them. He was dressed the exact same way as Riku, the only difference being the colour scheme. This new guy's clothes were all in black, clear blue and ruby red. As he came closer, Sora noticed that he looked a lot like Riku. In fact, it was kind of like looking at a clone of him.
"Sorry about that, bro, I didn't see you coming," the duplicate Riku said and sent them both an evil smirk that made his former words turn into an obvious lie.
Sora wrinkled his nose.
This guy, however much he resembled the person holding him in his arms at the moment, was not Riku. This guy, was deranged.
The deranged replica stopped about two steps away from them.
"I see you've brought a boyfriend," he said with a devilish grin. "He looks cute. Can I play with him when you get bored?"
Riku produced a sound close to a growl and Sora felt the arms around him tighten.
"Oh, buzz off Ansem!"
"Now, is that a way to treat your own brother? He's such a bore sometimes," Ansem said, the last comment directed towards Sora. "I'm sure you'll find my company a lot more interesting," he added with a wink of one eye.
Before Sora had a chance to turn down the offer, the closed fist style, Riku pushed him aside, making him stand behind him.
"Just get the hell away and leave him alone!" Riku said, his eyes almost shooting sparks of anger.
"Sheesh, Riku. If you're that possessive of him he'll definitely leave you. But don't worry, I won't touch him. Unless he wants me to."
"Go away!"
"Yada, yada, yada," Ansem replied wittingly and rolled his eyes at his brother, but never the less he strolled out to the street in order to retrieve the lost ball.
Riku was vibrating with aggravation, fists formed and un-formed as he breathed through his clenched teeth.
Sora silently stood by to wait it out.
"I'm sorry about that", Riku said after a moment of silence. "My brother's always been like that. He loves to make me angry..."
"He likes to hurt you, you mean," Sora noted and Riku turned around to face him.
"Yes," he said silently.
"So, are we still gonna' get inside or do you wanna' crash at my place instead?" Sora asked and smiled widely as Riku's face showed an expression of pure surprise over the offer.
"You really wouldn't mind staying?" he asked, having trouble believing the fact that Sora was still speaking to him.
"Yeah, sure, but you know, my place is guaranteed to be "Ansem-or-what's-his-name"-free."
Riku smiled weakly and with a hand on Sora's shoulder he started to move them both in the direction of the house again.
Sora finally noticed the huge white complex ahead of them. It was more or less a mansion, three floors high with big windows, a glassed-in terrace and red roofing tiles.
"Wow..." Sora breathed out in wonder as they got closer.
"Wait until you get inside!" Riku said with a little bit of his earlier enthusiasm back in his voice.
Riku opened the large door of dark wood and let them inside.
Sora looked around himself with equal shares of awe and fear. The size of the place and the expensive decorations filling it was somewhat intimidating.
"Riku, no offence, but I don't think I'll be able to sleep here, ever..."
The silver-haired young man smirked at his friend, reached out and tousled his hair, making Sora grimace and settled a bit of his fears.
"I kind of figured you'd say that when I saw how you freaked out over the neighbourhood before. Just let me pack some of my stuff in a bag and I'll follow you right back to your place instead."
"Sounds good," Sora replied and followed him as he started climbing the stairs leading to the second floor.
When upstairs, they walked through a dark corridor and entered the last room on the right, which proved to be Riku's.
The room was big and unexpectedly messy. In the upper corner of it stood a wide single bed, un-made and with a pile of school-books at the foot. All over the pale grey floor laid discarded clothes and on the bright blue walls hung posters of some rock-stars.
The only spot in the room that seemed to be free from the otherwise reigning mess, was a long writing desk stretching from one end of the outer wall to the other, standing right beneath the big window. The white surface of the desk was high polished and reflected the window's view over the garden and the north end of the city park, creating an illusion of greenery inside the room.
Apart from the reflection, the surface was only disturbed by the black laptop that was lying on the far end of the desk.
Sora let out a low whistle.
"Yeah, I know," Riku said with a laugh, "one would think I'd have a more tidy room, right?"
Sora nodded in response.
They were suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door frame and both the young men turned around at the sound.
Standing in the doorway was a girl about Sora's height, with pale blond hair and water coloured eyes, wearing a skirt suit of pristine white and a pale pastel pink top underneath the jacket.
The apparition looked from one to the other with a troubled expression in her face.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you had company..." she said, her voice just as pale and fragile as her appearance seemed to be.
"Oh, no worries, Naminé," Riku hurried to say and motioned for her to come inside the room. She didn't step inside, but she didn't leave either.
Sora watched her with the interest of the curious, while Riku found it to be a good time for introductions.
"Naminé, this is Sora, a guy I know from school, and Sora, this is my sister, Naminé."
"Hi!" Sora said enthusiastically and Naminé nodded her response.
"Riku, have you seen Ansem?" she asked, suddenly remembering why she'd wanted to speak with her brother.
Riku's face darkened a bit at the mentioning of his brother, nodding slowly.
"Yeah, Mr. Destroyer-of-the-world was trying to break Sora's nose with a tennis ball when we got here. Why d'you wanna' know?"
Naminé's features faltered for a bit at the mentioning of Ansem's welcoming.
"I just wanted to know what he's done to my sketchbook... I can't find it anywhere and I found him lurking about my room this morning. I thought he might know where it is."
"Should I go talk to him?" Riku asked her, his irritation towards Ansem obvious in his tone of voice.
"No, don't, I don't mean to interrupt you... I'll go talk to him myself..."
"No you don't, sis!" Riku objected and stepped over some comic books to get to her. "I'll go tell him off and then I'll follow Sora home." He dropped a bag he'd been packig at Sora's feet and was out the door and down the stairs before any of the others had a chance to stop him.
Sora stared after him like a puppy losing sight of its master. In front of him stood the pale apparition that was Naminé, looking just as dumbfounded by this turn of events as he felt.
"So..."she started after a moment of awkward silence. "You're the first friend he's brought here in a lot of years, you know."
Sora blinked.
"Well, I guess I'm the first one that's good enough then," he said with a strained smile.
Naminé observed him with an icy chill in her eyes.
"Since you've met Ansem and still stayed here, I guess that could be a correct assumption."
Sora raised an eyebrow.
"Huh?"
"Ansem isn't all that good with people," Naminé filled in and turned her eyes towards her white fluffy in-door slippers.
"Well, that's an understatement," Sora replied with a laugh. He then came to think of a question he'd been meaning to ask Riku.
"Hey, Nami...uh..."
"Naminé."
"Ok, Naminé, I was just wondering... They're like, identical twins, right?"
Naminé actually smiled at this. A pale and small smile, but a smile nonetheless.
"Yes. Riku's about three minutes older, but that's it."
"Ok, so why is it that one of them is great, while the other acts like a lunatic psycho on speeding drugs?"
Now Naminé smiled for real.
"I can see why he likes you. You have a way with words, I have to admit that."
Sora straightened his back at this, knowing he'd gotten a compliment of some sort, but not sure whether or not he should feel proud about it or linger on the fact that she thought he was speaking funny.
"None of us really know why Ansem is like that. He and Riku started out being quite alike, inseparable when kids, but as they turned seven or so, I think I was about five or six at the time, Ansem just started to do everything he could to make Riku cry or get mad. Later on it stretched out to include making just about every person he meets feel bad. It's as if he was ill or something..."
"Or something," Sora concluded as he let the information sink in.
Naminé returned her blue eyes to Sora.
"So, how about you then? Why are you here and what's your reason for hanging out with Riku? What's in it for you?"
The pale girl's porcelain face was showing a serious expression and a rock-solid determination.
The unexpected question and the suddenly hostile attitude confused Sora.
"What?"
Naminé looked at him in silent concentration for a moment, before she relaxed in a deep sigh.
"I guess you're actually here because he likes you then..." She said in a whisper. "How long have you known him?"
Sora felt like he was being cross-examined and was starting to get pretty annoyed by the whole situation.
"Since the start of last semester, ok? What's with all these questions, really? No wonder he doesn't bring many friends over here – as far as I've gotten to know you, all you guys seem to be totally nuts! I'm starting to guess Riku's the only sane person in this family!"
Naminé looked at him in wide-eyed surprise.
"I'm sorry..." she breathed out weakly, sincerity clear in her hushed voice. " It's just... Well, my brother's been through a lot of disappointments when it comes to friends... I just didn't want to see him hurt again..." She bowed her head slightly as she apologized, an act that didn't really surprise Sora. The pale girl simply seemed like the kind of person who bows a lot.
"Ah, no worries," Sora hurried to interrupt Naminé before she could say anything else. "I'm just not used to anyone asking so much about me."
They both looked at each other for a moment in thoughtful silence. Sora could hear someone's dog barking outside somewhere further up the street, but apart from that there were no sound to be heard.
Suddenly he realised why he felt like he knew Naminé from before; her face reminded him very much of someone else's. A face he hadn't seen in years. Naminé looked exactly like a blond version of Kairi, now that he'd come to think of it. This somewhat odd similarity in appearances reminded him of something else as well: The feeling of déjà vu the first time he'd met Riku. It was as if he'd met all of them, Riku, his brother Ansem and their sister Naminé before, somewhere.
He just couldn't figure out where or when.
He was about to ask Naminé about this, when it all hit him with a snap: his dream.
He'd had the dream once or twice already before he'd moved to where he lived now and before he'd met Riku. The part that he couldn't quite get was that he knew he'd dreamt of Riku and Naminé in the very first dreams. Only, in his dream, the setting had been different, as had their relations and clothes...
Sora knew there was something he should know about Naminé, Riku and Ansem, something important, but he couldn't grasp it. It was like a distant memory, slipping out of his hands or getting out of his reach whenever he went for it.
It was very annoying.
Before Sora had a chance to ask Naminé about whether or not they'd actually met before, Riku showed up in the doorway, a strained smile on his lips as he turned to his sister.
"I'm sorry, sis, but I think he might have trashed it in the shredder at dad's office..." he said slowly and Naminé's reaction was a silently whispered "Oh".
A lonely tear found its way down her cheek.
"Was there something important in it?" Riku asked carefully, feeling bad for bringing the news.
"Only memories," Naminé mumbled and quickly dried the tear off her cheek with the back of her hand. "I really wish he'd stop doing this..."
Riku nodded with sympathy and gave her shoulder a squeeze of comfort as she turned around and left the room.
Sora watched in silence, not knowing how to properly react to all of it.
"I'm sorry about all this and for leaving you alone with Naminé like that," Riku started out as he turned to face Sora for the first time since he'd gotten back from chasing down his brother. "She can be a little odd sometimes, but she's alright".
Sora only nodded in response. She was odd, that was for sure. But then again, all three of the siblings seemed a bit different form the ordinary people in total.
"Don't worry," he said and smiled convincingly wide. "She just asked a few questions about who I am, nothing big, really."
Sora could see Riku relax as he said this. It was as if there was something else about his sister that Riku hadn't told Sora about, and from the look of it, he wasn't going to say anything either, unless it was necessary.
"So," Sora said to break up the silence that was threatening to build up again. "You've got everything packed?"
Riku nodded and grabbed his bag from where he'd left it on the floor.
"Lead the way," he said and made a gesture with his arm to urge him on.
"Yeah, as soon as I recognize my surroundings," Sora replied with a grimace. "Until then, I think it would better if you're the navigator of this ship".
Riku let out an amused snicker and they both left the room together.