Disclaimer: How about no.

Title: Hot Stuff

Summary: To Shiki and Riku, it's just another day of fixing fashion sense and grabbing a meal after school. But, of course, it's Valentine's Day. Cue the questioningly-named drinks, Shining Knights, staplers, and hot stuff. Platonic Riku/Shiki, AU.

Characters: Shiki, Riku, mentions of others, such as Neku, Joshua, Kairi, and Sora.

Rating: K+? I greatly await the day that I can write a K fic.

Author's Notes at the end of the story.

Thank you to g-peachy-chan, Infamousplot, Raberba girl, Inita, Kairiangel035, NinjaxSketcheartx, xBeautifulColors, and Animesrock145 for reviewing! :)

It's been a couple of months now, since I first met Riku. Somehow – but then again, with Neku and Joshua, I am very experienced in befriending anti-social balls of angst – we'd managed to hit it off, exchange phone numbers, all of the stuff that awkward high-collar guys did with awkward cat-hugging girls, which mainly involves chasing him down after school to correct his clothes (I swear, he wouldn't know good fashion if it swaggered up to him and smacked him with a Pegaso handbag), and him copying off most of my maths work, since it'd turned out that he was actually pretty bad at it? I mean, wow, he looked like a genius, but apparently it didn't really run in the family. According to what little he'd told me, both his younger brothers were natural clever clogs, but neither of them actually liked using their brains. Riku, on the other hand, did like using his brain, but unfortunately, he didn't really have that much of one to begin with.

Still, I'm rambling. Again. Shiki, you've really got to stop doing that!

Also, is talking to oneself a sign of madness?

Crap.

At the moment (dum dum dummm!), I'm waiting outside the school gates for Riku, so that I can see his lack of fashion sense and try to smash it into what brain he does have that flat shoes and baggy trousers do not go together. It never works, but a girl can dream, can't she?

I decide to sit down on the ledge beside the gate, watching as the posh snobs from St. Michael's and St. Ursula's stride past our own school, sending those little condescending looks at us all as they snigger past. I may or may not have hit several of them on the head as they walked past.

Okay, okay, I did!

Don't sue me. I've got a lot of money, but seriously.

Don't.

After a few minutes of sitting down, and okay, Riku never takes this long to leave school, I finger the earphones in my blazer pocket. They're a CAT edition, extremely rare, and therefore extremely expensive, and Neku had brought me them for my birthday just a few weeks ago.

Hmm... to put in, or not to put in? If I put them in, then I can ignore the people staring at Mr. Mew (who's peeking out of my bag), but then I might not hear Riku come, and if I don't hear him, then I can't have my daily fix of pretending to be the fashion police! Conflicting feelings!

Thankfully, my question is answered by some divine force from beside me. Someone taps my shoulder. I whirl around, grinning upon seeing Riku leap back several feet, looking surprised. He always was quite... ah, reactive. But hey, he was the one to tap me! As for how he could leap that far... according to Sora (who was Neku's brother, so I chatted to him sometimes), he was a record-holder at the long jump? That would explain a lot of things.

"Shiki!" He walks up to me, rubbing the back of his neck, staring at the ground. "Don't do that to me."

I pout. "Heeeyyyy, you were the one who attacked me. If anything, I should be the one scared!" I grin. "Reversal of roles much?"

He looks ready to tell me to shut up, but one thing that Riku does have a lot of (along with awkwardness) is manners, so he just sighs and stands beside me. I stand up also, heaving my school bag over my shoulder. "Um..."

"Yeah?"

He still doesn't look at me, stuffing his hands into his baggy pockets. "...Are you busy?"

I cross my arms. "If by busy, you mean doing absolutely nothing, then yes, yes I am. Terribly busy." Ugh his collar is sticking up again! I yank it down before he can protest. "I'm gonna have to stick with you, anyways. Someone needs to stop you from committing crimes against mankind."

"I wear what's comfortable," Riku grumbles as we begin our daily descend down Sunset Hill. At the bottom, there's a small café that we tend to stop in before we walk home together. I'd learnt that me and Riku actually lived at the same avenue, so we'd kind of agreed to walk home together. By that, I mean that I drag him around, but details. "Shiki, there are some things that I just couldn't care about, and one of those things is fashion."

"Yet you still keep all of your buttons in one place." He's gonna get panicky. Yep, he does; his head swerves up to me from the ground. I grin.

"That was one time! And it was you that made me take off my pants!"

"There was a loose button! Did you honestly expect me to leave that... that monstrosity clear for the whole world to see?"

"The whole world saw me naked!"

"Just your lower half. It was quite a lovely lower half, too."

"Shiki!" His cheeks are burning, I can tell from. Clearly isn't used to girls. Pity. I do this to all the boys I know. "D-don't say things like that!"

He brings his collar up, snuggling into it against the freezing air.

His collar.

Is.

High.

RAGE MODE ACTIVATE.

I fold it down forcefully, shifting in my bag for a stapler. "Stay still!" After the day that Beat would not leave his coat collar alone, I'd learnt to bring a stapler around just for this kind of occasion. And a needle. With thread. You could never be too careful with boys.

Riku fidgets under my firm grip. We've stopped underneath a tree, thankfully, which offers plenty of shade, but it doesn't stop people from sniggering at us. I silently swear to staple any of them... if I ever seen them again.

"Shiki," Riku near wails, but Riku is a Man, and therefore, grumbles. "People can see us."

"I've seen you naked," I say.

"That was one time."

"You've seen me naked," I continue.

"One time." Those two words seem to be the entirety of Riku's excellent vocabulary.

"There's been a lot of one times. So, therefore, it's been more than one time." I grin upon wrapping my fingers around the stapler in the deep abyss of my bag. "Aha!"

"Should I be scared?" Riku whispers, actually sounding frightened for his existence.

"Nonsense!" I laugh, maybe a little bit evilly, which is probably doing nothing for Riku's amazing confidence in me. "You can trust me completely!"

"Really," he says dryly. "Somehow, I doubt that."

"Really," I say, taking a gentler approach, calming down a little. I just... I just get intense whenever fashion is involved, okay? Okay. I like fashion. "Look... I'll put the stapler away, as long as you promise to keep the collar down."

"It's comfortable," Riku Man wails, but he's tugging it down, yeesss! Another victory for Shiki, mwahaha! "And I don't even want to know why you carry a stapler around."

"It's always wise to be prepared," I say, putting the stapler back into my school bag. Hopefully, Mr. Mew won't accidentally be stapled on its way down. "Besides, Beat and Neku have some kind of fetish for collars." Beat sticks to jacket collars, but my word, Neku's usual collar... doesn't even deserve to be called a collar, it's just that stupid. It's like a turtle-neck, only they stretched it out to, like, ten times its normal size and left it sagging around the poor person's neck. It doesn't even deserve to be called clothing! Joshua also has a collar, but he has the decency to keep it down around me. Sometimes.

Riku chuckles. I grin. "True."

Wait wait wait. "Huh? You've seen them?"

"Once or twice. Beat's the one that keeps crashing into the bin with his skateboard, right?"

The way he says it – like the fact that Beat and rubbish bins crash together like it's no big deal – makes me burst out laughing. "Riku, Beat has broken his leg aboutthree times in the past year."

He stares. "No way."

"Yes way. Now; how do you know Neku?"

"I share physical class with him."

"You poor, poor thing." Neku and exercise always ends with his collar getting caught on something. And then he hurts his wrist. Every time.

Riku looks thoughtful, rubbing his neck. "Actually, he's pretty good. He can run for miles on end."

I leer closer. "But on the ropes..?"

He laughs again, throwing his head back while beaming. "Heh, he could be better. Sora's just amazing on everything."

I tug on his wrist lightly, grinning. "Well, aren't you lucky? But c'mon! By the time we get there, it's gonna be closed!"

"W-whoa! Wait a second!"

"I'll get the stapler out."

Riku rolls his eyes, but allows me to drag him down the rest of the hill.

When we arrive at the café, there's a whole load of fancy hearts and pink ribbons and elaborative red roses floating around the giant windows, covering up the sign completely. I don't miss the flashing red image of two people snogging underneath fireworks in the corner. I think Riku notices it too, since he coughs quietly and pushes open the door.

That's when I remember that today is Valentine's Day. Or, as my younger sister stresses to me frequently, Singles Awareness Day.

Which can be shortened to SAD.

For some reason, this amuses me every time I hear it.

But anyway, it is Valentine's Day, and so, everyone and the kitchen sink is going to believe that me and Riku are an item.

Like, hello? We've only known each other for a couple of months! You cannot go out with someone until you've known them for over a year, in my book. Otherwise... what's the point? You've gotta know if the person you're dating is someone that you like or not, don't you? Just trying to look 'cool' by hogging the first boy that looks in your direction... that's wrong. You don't look cool. You just look stupid and desperate, as if you couldn't live without constant attention. And maybe the fact that the majority of my friends are male, or male-phobic Kairi, has put me off dating and romance somewhat, but really, it's annoying.

Ugh, I'm totally over thinking this. Food. I need food.

"Are you sure that we should be here?" I whisper to Riku as we walk up to the counter. The café's pretty busy, mostly with a bunch of university people, and I unconsciously strain my neck to look for Aqua. She's away at university at the moment, so we don't really get to see her, but I swear, if she's gone and hogged a boy...

Nope, she isn't here, so hopefully she hasn't; if she has, then she'll be getting a good slap from both Kairi and me. "I mean, the owner probably ships us together."

Riku stops walking to stare at me. "What?"

"What?" Then I realize that I'd said the last part aloud. Eek! "N-nothing!" I flail my arms about. "Honestly, nothing! No big deal!"

Riku walks away to view the menu. I follow him, and can just make him out muttering to himself about how it is physically possible to ship people. In my mind, I snort.

He stares at me again.

I did not snort aloud, did I?

I did.

Riku's shaking with laughter, so I did.

Great.

I walk up beside him, swinging my green school bag, staring at the menu. He's frowning, and I can see why. I stop grinning as soon as I see it. Everything's so... so cheesy! All about lovely dovely stuff and every single item involves love and we only came here for a small snack don't do this to me.

"I feel sick just looking at this menu," I mutter. "What happened to the scones? Salads? Water?"

Riku looks as if he's trying not to smirk at the menu. "Moonlight Dust?" Or plain old water. "Heartfelt Smoothie? Shin-" He suddenly stops. "Did you write this menu, Shiki?" he says, voice flat, like he's given up completely.

"No?" Why would he suggest that? Then I see what he was about to read, and I grin. "Ohhh, a Shining Knight? Count me in!"

"Everywhere we go," I can hear him moan as we go to the empty counter. "Everywhere."

"Didn't Sora get you a Queen's Knight pin for your birthday?"

"Shut up."

Oops, manners have gone out of the window and into the front of a truck. Riku must be cross. "Aww, I'll order you two Shining Knights, don't you worry."

"Shiki." He sounds slightly strained. "Please."

"Of course!"

Suddenly, an angry violin blares out of Riku's trouser pocket, all high notes that suddenly shift to low and wow I keep forgetting that it's amazing. His face is brighter than a red turnip when he picks it up, flipping it open like the awkward child he is to answer it. He waves a hand at me, most likely to tell me to order some food while he talks, so I do. Basic manners, right?

It takes a while, but I manage to convince the disappointed-looking waitress, that no, me and Riku are just friends, not with a boy or girl in front of it, or, as the French say, petite. Or petit. French adjectives are really confusing.

I order two drinks of Shining Knight (which turns out to just be fruit juice) along with Hot Stuff, which is a small wrap covered in chilli sauce and red peppers, and a bowl of Green Envy (salad) for myself. I hope Riku likes spicy foods. I think he mentioned liking it once..? Ah, well, he does now.

When I check the price with the waitress and try to find a table, Riku's already sitting at one in the corner, staring out of the window, phone clenched in his hand. He looks almost... angry? Uh-oh. I've only ever seen him cross about two times, and I don't care for a repeat.

"You never did tell me where you got that ringtone from," I say, trying to lighten the mood as I slide into the seat opposite him. He looks up at me, surprised, before sighing. "Where did you download it?"

"I, um... I didn't download it."

Wow, really? "Huh? But that's so good! Oh oh oh! Is that... you?"

He grins a little, looking wistful. "Heh, I wish. That's my younger brother. He's really good, but..."

When he doesn't finish, I continue for him. "Really good? Riku, that's an understatement!" I lean forward in my chair. He leans back, looking slightly uncomfortable, so I sit back down again. "He's younger than you, so he's gotta be less than sixteen, but he's that good?"

"Shiki," he says with a small laugh. "Tell him that and he'll slap you."

I wrap my fingers together, humming. "You know, you've gotta introduce me to your family soon. You already know Kairi, but I don't know any of your family! That's not fair!"

"Heh, neither of them are... 'people' people." He laughs a little with his air quotes, looking thoughtful. Like he's looking back on memories. Hopefully they're good memories. I mean, how could you not love your relatives? That's like... not liking the Sun. They're your own blood, aren't they? In a way, they're you. So, if you hate them, you're hating yourself in a way. Creepy, now that I think about.

"Well, I'll meet them one day. That's a promise!"

Riku laughs again. "Looking forward to that day."

Struggling to think of anything to say, I eventually decide to settle my curiosity. "So... who was that on the phone?"

His eyes dart to the window, before staring down to the table. Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have bought that up. "Um... just my brother? He wanted to know if I was coming home or not."

If there is one thing that Riku is awful at doing, it's lying. He never looks at people whenever he lies, so it's pretty obvious that he is. "Look," I say, leaning forward, sounding serious. "I don't want to be a nuisance or anything, but you're lying. Mind telling me who it really was?"

"I wasn't lying!"

"Riku!"

"It's nothing that you need to know!"

"Tell me!"

"No!"

"Rik-" Then I stop myself. Why I am being so rude? If Riku doesn't want to say anything, then he doesn't have to! Why am I being so damn persistent? Ugh! "S-sorry. Um... I shouldn't have been..." I settle for hugging myself tightly, since Mr. Mew is still in my bag. Why do I always mess up with people? Ahhh! "Sorry."

He shakes his head. "Nah, it's okay. I get like that with Sora all of the time. Kairi knows just to tell me what's wrong straight away."

My sisterly instinct kicks in. "Is something wrong with Kairi?"

Laughing, he waves his hands about when I frown at him. "Nothing, nothing! I promise!"

Good. I relax back in my chair and stretch. How long are the foods gonna take? It's only salad and a wrap. "Okay."

At that moment, my wishes come true.

"Hiya!"

Is that an Australian accent?

My word.

A silver tray's set down in front of us. Riku pales at the two Shining Knights as I lift them out, setting one on his side, and the other to myself. The water seems to sparkle in the setting sun. The girl serving us – some perky person with bright red hair tied up in pigtails – grins at us widely, clapping her hands together.

"Oh, I do hope that you enjoy it!" Yep, she's got a really really really thick accent. "Happy Singles Awareness Day!"

Riku nearly chokes on his drink. "Hnmamk?"

I shrug upon the woman's confused look. Her grin is infectious, I swear. "I dunno?"

Riku waves his hand about a few times while holding his throat with the other. He looks a bit like someone who's about to have a seizure. "I-I mean-" He coughs again. "-Isn't it Valentine's Day?"

"Well, obviously, but Fang and Light told me that you two weren't a..." She hums before grinning again, linking her fingers together. "Couple?"

"Friends!" Me and Riku blurt out at the same time. We then proceed to send daggers at each other before laughing. He's awful at glaring, especially since I know how he does it; and had promptly chopped off the fringe that had allowed him to deploy it so well.

"Vanille!" a cross-sounding woman's voice shouts from behind the counter. "We've got customers. Stop messing around."

"Aww, but I'm only having fun!"

"Get inside."

"You see?" She sighed heavily. "Light's such a spoil-sport."

"It's Lightning!"

I snort. Lightning? Talk about cheesy. Riku apparently has similar thoughts, since he's struggling not to smirk a little.

"You mean Claire!" Vanille calls back cheerfully, before giving us a beaming wave. "Anywho; have a great time, you two! Ciao!"

Then – and I kid not- she runs into the back-store, nearly toppling over half of the waiting customers.

I explode into laughter as soon as the door slams shut, digging my fork into the Green Envy. The lettuce is surprisingly soft, and actually looks pretty good. Riku stares at his Hot Stuff. As in, the food. Not whatever else he has that is hot, and stuffy.

Jeez, they give these things some weird names.

"...What is this?" Riku quietly asks.

"Food."

He nearly rolls his eyes, but stops at the last second. "Like I couldn't tell."

"It's Hot Stuff," I reply simply.

All of the peppers in his mouth explode onto his plate in a wave of red. I immediately throw a handkerchief towards him. "Eww! Clean clean clean clean!"

"Hot stuff?" Riku squeaks out. I've honestly never heard his voice go so high before. "HOT STUFF!?"

"It has capitals and – are you choking!?"

He furiously waves away my hand before I can perform the choking aid on him. "N-no, I'm fine, just fine!"

"You don't look fine." He's all red and looks flustered and oh my is he going to say something please don't I-

"-Hey, Shiki?" he asks softly.

I snap myself out of my thoughts, smiling. The Green Envy remains uneaten on my hanging fork. "Yeah?"

"...Thanks."

I tilt my head. Thanks for what? The food? Dragging him down here? Or something else? "What for?"

"Being my friend." He smiles at me, almost shyly, and it's enough to make my heart melt since he's soooooo cute! "I-I mean, I know it sounds stupid and all, since most people don't say that kind of stuff, but..." He sighs. "But yeah. Thanks, Shiki."

His hand's resting around his drink, so I gently take it in my own, smiling back at him. He's such a fantastic friend. He lets me drag him around no problem, like he doesn't mind at all. It's sweet. It really is. I don't think I realized just how sweet he is until now. "No problem. Happy Valentine's Day."

"Aww, you two really should be a couple!"

"Vanille!"

A/N: This was written with platonic in mind, since although I do ship Riku/Shiki, I... only really do it in canon-verse? In this universe, I honestly cannot see the two of them together. Okay, maybe a little, but details. Not in this particular story.

Also, this is my entry for the group KHplatonicLove over on deviantArt, which had a challenge running for Valentine's Day (still time to enter!), but the story had to be platonic.I had great issues debating where I should have published this, since it could have counted as an entry in my challenge attempt for platonic love (Petals of an Anemone, if you must know), or post it as a separate story altogether. In the end, I settled for adding it onto Cute Name. I think I'll just make this a series of Riku/Shiki stuff set in the same universe. Storylines do not work for me, end of.

Vanille, Fang and Lightning are all from Final Fantasy XIII. Yes, I know that Lightning features a lot in KH fics, but you never see Vanille or Fang featuring, so it's okay. Maybe.

LOOK I LOVE VANILLE OKAY.

I was going to do Snow instead of Lightning (because I love Snow; he's currently my favourite FFXIII character along with Sazh and Vanille, and I don't really like Lightning), but I can't really imagine him working in a café, can you? Poor guy would scare everyone away with how tall he is. Lightning's probably working there for Serah, to get out and communicate with people. This is Serah we're talking about oh I don't know.

Also I will not tolerate bashers of Vanille or Snow in any reviews (or FFXIII in general, since that game gets an incredible lot of hate), so if you want to review just to tell me that, I honestly will ignore it. To me, both of them are wonderful characters, and do not get nearly as much love as they deserve. Same with Hope and Sazh. Sazh is just plain ignored. D:

I would wish you all Happy Valentine's Day, but this is over a week early. ^^; Have a great day when it rolls around! XD

Man, is this note long enough?