Disclaimer: I, Sora's Sacrifice, do not own Kingdom Hearts (none of 'em!) or any of the characters or creatures in it. This is just a fanfic! And I don't own The Phantom of the Opera or Dracula 2000, either. That is all.

A/N: Ok, first of all, I want to say that I'm reeeeeally sorry I took so long to update! It's been two months, and I feel terrible about making you guys wait so long. In fact, I still feel terrible, because this is kinda a filler chapter, and I'm sorry. But this story needs time to progress! I'll have the next chapter up really soon to make up for it, ok? Again, I'm really sorry! I promise on L's grave that I will have chapters up a lot more often from now on! So, without further-ado, here's the eighth chapter of Broken!

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Broken

Chapter 8: Storms

Sora huffed, frustrated, trying to hide the embarrasment he felt as Riku teased him about how cute he would look in a dress. He was currently suggesting that Sora buy a light blue, knee-length dress, and go skipping around wearing flowers in his hair, holding a basket full of...well, flowers, and hug everyone he met. Sora blushed at this and smacked Riku's shoulder -- causing him no real pain -- in turn causing Riku to laugh at him some more. Sora finally got tired of Riku's little teasing fest and headed to another small store in the mall with clothes in it that were made for boys -- not little dresses.

Riku followed close behind, deciding that it was no fun making fun of Sora when he wasn't there (gee, isn't he smart?). And so, after some time, Riku and Sora bought Sora some new clothes -- or rather Sora picked out the clothes and Riku purchased them -- and were headed home. That was when it started to rain.

At first it was just drizzling with a dark sky and a few dark rain clouds, the sky got darker, the rain got harder and the sky got very much covered by dark rain clouds, then the wind picked up along with it, lightening flashed in the sky and you could hear the low rumble of thunder. And so basically...it was a storm (big surprise there).

At first the two boys just stood at the entrance of the mall, under the shelter of a small roof thingy (I don't know what they're called). Then Riku walked forward, leaving the shelter of the tiny roof thing, and headed towards his house. Sora stayed very close to Riku, as if the rain was going to hurt him somehow.

"Are you okay?" Riku asked, one silver eyebrow raised in question.

"Huh?" Sora seemed to have just noticed Riku looking at him oddly, and then smiled up at him sheepishly. "Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just...cold!" Sora cried, as if he suddenly just came up with that idea. "Yes, very, very cold," he concluded, pretending to shiver (though Riku wasn't sure if the shiver was completely fake). Sora's skin felt cold, and it was paler than it should've been.

"Are you sure?" Riku asked again, double checking that his small brunette--err, the small brunette, was okay. Sora nodded enthusiastically. Suddenly there was a loud roll of thunder and a quick, bright flash of lightening in the dark sky above them, and Sora clung to Riku's arm (the same arm that he had clung to earlier that day) like a lifeline. His eyes were shut tight, his hold on Riku's arm strong, his body was very close to Riku's, ever closer than before, and his body was trembling. Was Sora afraid of storms? Riku gave him yet another odd look, and as the thunder passed Sora slowly opened his eyes. When he did, Riku saw his cerulean blue eyes streaked with fear, and his expression quickly turned confused and worried. "Are you positive you're okay?" Riku urged, furrowing his brows. Sora's head shot up towards Riku's, his eyes filled with slight terror for a moment, and then he suddenly hid the fear, trying his best to flash a believable smile.

"Yes, Riku! I'm fine!" Sora insisted, still trembling, though his grip on Riku's arm had loosened slightly. Riku sighed and gave up. He figured as long as Sora wasn't in any real danger right then, then it could wait until they got home...and dried off.

The rain was pouring, and both of the poor boys were soaked. By the time they got back to their house (or rather Riku's house) they were soaked to the bone and both were freezing so much that they couldn't stop chattering their teeth and shivering all over. Why, they could hardly feel their toes and fingers, let alone move! Riku's father wasn't home, and there were more than enough bathrooms for both of the teens to take a shower at the same time (plenty of hot water, too). So, each one grabbing a clean, dry pair of clothes, they two boys took nice, slightly long showers. The hot water felt so good on their cold skin, and it un-numbed their bodies and un-froze their lips.

Riku was confused. Usually storms on Destiny Islands were not that bad, or cold. Although, there were the rare times when they were. Lucky them they were out in one of them. Riku figured it was nearing winter, because that was when the storms on Destiny Islands usually got a bit colder.

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When they were done with their showers, they both ended up in the living room. Sora was curled up on the couch with a warm blanket draped around him, and Riku sat next to him, remote in hand. The huge, wide-screen TV was on and they were currently watching 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Riku was having his fun annoying Sora by making rude little comments about every scene in the movie, and Sora was arguing with him, defending the characters, outfits, songs, setting...basically everything. Riku stopped making fun of the movie after a while when they got further into the movie and it got more intense. He actually seemed interested in it now, paying much more attention then he had been before. Sora caught Riku's smirk as they were singing 'The Point of No Return'. Sora would have scolded him, but he was also interested in the movie, and so both remained mostly silent until the end of the movie.

When the movie was over, Riku stood up and stretched, then headed to the kitchen, muttering something that Sora couldn't understand on his way there. Moments later he came back into the living room carrying a cup of orange juice and a bag of cookies. He threw the small snack bag at Sora, revealing that they were chocolate chip cookies, and took his seat next to Sora again, sipping his orange juice.

"Thanks, Riku!" Sora exclaimed, overly excited about the small bag of cookies. Riku nodded, signaling that Sora was welcome, too busy drinking his juice to answer correctly. The storm had calmed down a lot, and Riku had completely forgotten about Sora's reaction to it earlier.

The TV spoke up and said that up next was 'Dracula 2000' (they had been watching 'The Phantom of the Opera' on cable.). Riku, seeing nothing better to do than watch a vampire movie that was rated R, left the TV on, waiting impatiently for the commercials to end.

Sora was greedily munching on the small cookies, only just then realizing how hungry he had been. 'Dracula 2000' was starting. It showed a boat sailing on calm waters, there was a sunset and all seemed calm and peaceful. Then the setting changed and it was suddenly night, the waves were wild, the wind was strong, the sky was dark, and the sailors on the boat that had once been content and undisturbed were now all dead.

As the movie progressed and Dracula finally came in, Sora realized that it was the same actor that played Erik in 'The Phantom of the Opera', Gerard Butler. Sora thought that that was pretty cool, because that same channel had just played a movie with the same actor as the main character in both movies. Sora tried hard to ignore Riku's smirks and comments during the movie, but he realized that Riku had a perverted side to him that wouldn't keep quiet.

When the movie was over, and Dracula finally dead, it was around 2:00 am. Sora was tired, and Riku didn't see any point in staying up any later, so the teens turned of the TV and headed upstairs, both vaguely wondering where Riku's father was at this hour. After brushing their teeth and bidding each other goodnight, the boys entered their seperate rooms and went to sleep.

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Lightening cracked and thunder boomed. Sora woke with a sudden gasp. He sat up immediately in his bed -- which was quite comfy -- and looked at the window on the wall nearby him, watching the flash of lightening through the thin curtains. His breathing became heavier, and he tried to calm himself. It's just a storm. It'll pass. It's okay, he thought to himself, closing his eyes and rocking slightly back and forth, clinging tightly to the blanket over him. He gasped again and his eyes shot open when another sudden crack of lightening struck and thunder rolled like a hard whip and loud drum (beta fish says that was eloquent and Xigbar's gonna eat Axel's toast on PURPOSE!).

Sora gulped and lay back down moments after that roll of thunder had passed. He slowly closed his eyes, only to re-open them when yet another crack of lightening was heard. He shifted his position so that he would be more comfortable, now facing outwards instead of towards the wall, so that he could see the door. It was silent for a while, only the sound of rain could be heard outside, and Sora thought that the storm was finally passing. He started to fall asleep when suddenly -- boom! There it was again. Sora struggled with trying to fall asleep for a while, but finally gave up, realizing that he was just too scared to fall asleep. It wasn't that he was afraid of storms...well, not exactly.

Finally, although Sora knew that he shouldn't wake him and disturb his sleep, Sora decided to head over to Riku's room. He slowly got out of bed, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and then slowly shifting his weight so that he was standing on them, and walked over to the door. His pace quickened as he opened the door and then suddenly heard another loud crack and low rumble.

When he got to Riku's door -- which didn't take him very long -- he very quietly opened the door, stifling a gasp as a very sudden and very, very loud crack of lightening hit and thunder rolled so loud Sora could swear that the house was shaking. He cautiously stepped into Riku's room and shut the door behind him, being very quiet and slow with every movement he made, so as to not wake Riku up (beta fish says as if he would wake up to Sora and not the storm). Standing at the entrance for a moment, Sora continued cautiously and soon made his way to Riku's bed, nearly tripping over the mess in Riku's room several times but somehow managing to stay quiet. Or so he thought.

When he was finally standing next to Riku's bed, after another loud thunder burst, Sora heard a muffled, tired voice speak.

"What time is it?" Sora stared at Riku's figure hidden underneath a large blanket, suprised that the older teen was awake. And all along Sora thought that he was being quiet...or maybe the storm had woken him up? Sora looked at the small digital clock that lay atop Riku's sidetable.

"4:27," Sora answered, shuffling his feet nervously. Riku just lay there, silent for a few moments, and then slowly and lazily turned so that he was half-facing Sora, still not sitting up all the way, leaning his weight on his elbow. His aquamarine eyes stared at Sora expectantly, and Sora could tell by the light of another flash of lightening that Riku was tired. After another moment of waiting, Riku spoke up again.

"Is there something you wanted?" Riku asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. Sora shook his head, mumbling a quiet 'no'. "Okay then," Riku said, rolling back over, "goodnight."

"But--" Sora stopped himself. He looked down shamefully as Riku turned back over, a slightly impatient expression on his face.

"What?" he asked flatly, clearly wanting to get back to sleep.

"Well, I..." Sora hesitated, Riku smirked.

"You're afraid of storms, aren't you?" he asked, a teasing tone to his voice.

"N-no!" the poor brunette stuttered, raising his hands up in defense. "I just...um...I'm afraid of...that...uh...vampire movie we watched. That's all," he lied pathetically, thinking that being afraid of a silly vampire movie was better than being afraid of a little storm. Riku seemed to believe it, and his smirk only widened. "So...can I sleep with you?" Okay, now Sora felt stupid. But he couldn't help it, he really was scared. Not for the reasons Riku thought, though.

"Well, I'm a vampire, so you better not," Riku teased, flashing his pearly white teeth as if fangs were going to be there. Sora glared at him flatly, then looked away. After a moments' silence, Riku sighed, and Sora looked back at him with hopeful eyes. "C'mon," the silver-haired teen said, lifting up part of the blanket and gesturing for Sora to come under with him. Sora smiled and got into Riku's bed, getting comfy under the thick blanket.

"Goodnight!" Sora chirped, as usual his fear leaving when he was with Riku, by his side.

"G'night," Riku replied, yawning. It was silent for a while, and then: "You're not really afraid of vampires, are you?" Sora sighed.

"Goodnight, Riku," he said dismissively, and both boys fell asleep.

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A/N: Ok, I checked and it said that this was 2000 and something words long, so I'm sorry if it seemed short to you. As for the movies...I love The Phantom of the Opera, and we saw Dracula 2000 on TV the other day, so...I dunno. Anywho...guess what! I finished my Mello plushie! Well, mostly, anyway. You see, me and my sisters have been making these plushies, and, uh...yeah. Anywho, also, from now on I'm going to reply to all anon. reviews for the previous chapter after the chapter I write, ok? Did that make sense? Anywho, even though I probably don't deserve them right now, if you reviewed that would make me really happy!

Anon. Review Reply:

inem: Right now! I'm really sorry for taking so long...I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'll have the next one up soon!

Thanks for reading, everyone!