Before we get started! Special Happy (Late) Birthday to Kuronari! Here's another chapter just cause you reviewed!
Sora wakes up feeling groggy and he's getting sick of waking up like this. He sits up to find himself back in 'his room' in the castle. Or at least…he thinks it is. They all look the same.
Snoring attracts Sora's attention. Not a loud snoring, more like a barely there snore. Like Riku.
Sora smiles as he finds Riku sleeping halfway on the end of his bed. He's barely sitting in a chair, leaning back so he's laying down with his back on the end of Sora's bed. He's got his arms crossed like he's napping in the sun on the island and he's trying to not get caught by Kairi.
His sheepdog hair is splayed everywhere like a fan and he looks like he's going to fall, ruining his makeshift bridge between Sora's bed and his chair.
Sora quickly – but carefully, so as to not wake Riku – maneuvers so he's sitting next to Riku's head. He leans his elbows against his thighs and rests his chin on his right hand as his left plays with the ends of Riku's hair.
It's longer now than it'd ever been while on the island and whenever Sora would ask about it, Riku would just shrug and that was the end of that. He did look attractive with his hair longer, but he can't imagine it's easy to fight with all of that getting in the way.
Sora himself had gotten a trim from Kairi once they'd gotten back home, but it's about halfway between his hair during his first journey and his hair during his second journey. Still wild, but not as long as it had gotten.
He thinks about how he got here. He'd been talking with Kairi. They'd been watching Cloud and Leon fight Ven and Ax – Lea. He must have passed out again. But he can't remember passing out. Sora counts it as a good thing.
Riku's eyes flutter open and he stares at Sora for a bit.
"Morning, sleepy head." He laughs.
Riku blinks before focusing on the brunet. Sora hears his best friend shout his name before bolting up into a sitting position. Which was a bad idea on all accounts.
After slamming his forehead into Sora's, Riku loses his status as bridge and falls to the floor ass first. Sora, having been blindsided by Riku's head, clutches his own in pain and falls to the side and hits the wall. With his head.
Sora groans loudly and curls into the fetal position. Sure, he's taken a beating before but that was completely unexpected and unwarranted.
"What the hell, Riku?!" Sora groans.
"Sorry!" Riku stands, clutching his own head in pain, "Glad to see you're okay."
"Matter of opinion." Sora groans, uncurling but still clutching his head, "That hurt."
"I know, I was there." Riku laughs.
"What happened? Did I pass out again?"
Riku's expression sobers and Sora feels guilt nibbling away at him. He's not trying to do this.
"Yeah. We're starting to worry."
"I'm sorry." Sora apologizes.
Riku gives him a forced smile, "It's alright. We'll find out what's going on and we'll fix it."
Sora smiles, wishing that were true.
"Tell me about Sora's feinting spells." Leon wants to smack the kid in front of him.
He's not even a kid, but it rubs Leon the wrong way how holier-than-thou he acts.
"Not much to tell. From everything I heard, the circumstances are all different. Sora doesn't remember it at all." Leon tells him.
Ienzo turns to look at him like he's mentally deficient.
"How can you expect me to come up with a hypothesis with such minimal data? I'm a scientist, Leon."
"I know we don't have a lot to work with, kid, I'm just asking for your help in the future trying to figure out what's wrong with Sora."
He sighs, turning away from the computer he's been trying – and filing – to use.
"Yes, Leon, I will help you."
The way he says it makes Leon's blood boil.
Ven slumps against the far wall of their groups makeshift sparring area. He's exhausted and tired and angry but none of that helps him. His body does not want to respond the way he knows it can and he's starting to suspect that he was asleep a lot longer than he'd originally thought.
He's weak and like this he has no hope of taking on Xehanort or his heartless.
Lea laughs as he takes a seat next to him, "Tired already?"
Lea, who had been his sparring partner earlier, had kicked his ass. To be fair, it had been a close match and Lea had definitely improved considerably.
"So tired." Ven groans, letting his head thud against the wall behind him.
Silence reigns between them, so Ven closes his eyes and enjoys the silence. Lea, as it turns out, was still the funny and nice guy that Ven had met before. The exception was Riku, who Lea has a serious grudge with. He's too scared to ask what happened between them.
Ven opens his eyes and looks at Lea, "So…I have a question."
"And I've got an answer." The red head teases.
"What happened to your friend? Isa?"
The smile falls from Lea's face and Ven wants to hit himself. That could be like someone asking what happened to Terra and Aqua.
"I don't know. We drifted apart while we were Nobodies. But he didn't wake up with me and the others. For all I know, he's out there somewhere looking for me."
"Why don't you go out there and look for him?"
Lea chuckles, "I have no way of doing it. Now that I'm human the Pathways of Darkness hold a serious threat to my heart and that was how I got around before."
"That sucks. If I see him, I'll tell him you're looking for him." Ven offers.
"You going somewhere?" Lea looks at him in surprise.
"Maybe. I was thinking about it." Ven confesses, "I still have to find Aqua and Terra. Sitting here isn't going to tell me what happened to them."
"I see. Well if I meet Terra and Aqua…I'll tell them you're looking for them."
Ven chuckles and thanks Lea as he pushes himself up, "I'm not leaving until I know I can fight on my own, though."
"So you'll be here a while." Lea ruffles Ven's hair and the blond lets out a loud protest.
"You two having fun?" Ven turns to see Sora, Riku, and Kairi making their way over.
"Yeah, sure, fun." Lea huffs, giving Riku a look.
"What are you guys doing out here?" Kairi asks, effortless drawing the conversation away from the short comment.
"We were sparring. I've gotten extremely rusty."
"There's no need to rush." Lea jokes as he rests his elbow on Ventus' head.
Ven quickly swats Lea away and everyone chuckles.
"If you guys are training, would you mind us butting in?"
"Of course not!" Ven wonders why anyone would mind, but then he remembers the animosity between Axel and Riku, "But you'll have to give me some time, I just got done with a round."
"That's fine!" Kairi walks over and links her arm with his, "You can tell me more about your friends as we watch Riku and Sora spar. Then we'll go. Sound good?"
Ven nods and walks over to the far side of the open area with Kairi. The red head hops up onto the railing barrier and Ven stands next to her legs. Lea follows them and stands on the opposite side of Kairi, not looking away from Sora and Riku.
"Think you can beat me this time, Sora?" Riku asks, smirk painting his face as he summons his Keyblade.
Ven notices the swirl of light and dark, a contrast to the typical flash of light that accompanies a Keyblade, and thinks that it's beautiful. Like a harmony.
"Oh, please. I've kicked your butt before, I'll do it again." Sora snarks back and summons his own Keyblade.
Sora's flash of light, while typical, seems a bit different to Ventus. He's not sure why, but it looks…dark?
He shakes his head; that doesn't make sense. It's a flash of light. You can't have a dark flash of light.
"This is going to last a while." Kairi laughs beside the blond and he sends her a quizzical look.
"What do you mean?"
"Despite how 'out of practice' they say they are, Sora and Riku spar together all the time. They know how the other fights and no one ever wins. Their fights can end up lasting an hour or more until they decide to give up."
Ven watches as the two of them stand opposite each other for a few seconds, waiting to see who will attack first. In the end, Riku charges forward first and slashes at the brunet.
Sora easily jumps over the attack, and Riku in general, and spins in the air to hit the light haired boy. But Riku saw it coming, or he has really good reaction time, and spins around and blocks the attack. Sora lands and rushes forward, sending the two of them into a graceful dance of dodging and attacking.
"Wow." Ven awes.
Kairi laughs, "You should see them when they fight together. Side by side."
"I can't imagine."
"I have to imagine it's pretty spectacular." Lea murmurs from next to Kairi.
Ven looks over and both of them look like they've bitten into a lemon. Ven wishes he knew about it. There seems to be quite a bit that he doesn't know about his new friends.
Sora and Riku race towards each other and it's another flurry of strikes. The two seem so in sync as they fight. One retreating as the other advances and effortlessly switching roles. It's fascinating to watch the two of them fight.
Then Ven starts to worry, because Sora had said he thought he was out of shape, but he's certain Sora is more in practice than he is. How difficult must these heartless be? How trying had their journey been to result in the skill he sees before him.
"Come on, Sora. I know you can do better than that!" Riku calls out as Sora backflips away from one of Riku's attacks.
Sora uses his legs as leverage to spin himself around in the air as he fires a blizzard spell at his friend.
"Says the one who's out of breath!" Sora calls back as Riku skirts around his spell.
"I could go for hours!" Riku laughs, jumping into the air to attack Sora.
Kairi sighs and rolls her eyes beside Ven.
"What's wrong?" Lea asks.
"They're gonna start showing off."
And she's right. Their fight gets aerial very quickly and Ven is shocked that the two of them can stay off the floor for that long. They use their surroundings to jump off of and clash together.
Before he really knows what is happening, Riku is doubling his offensive action and his final hit sends Sora flying back. He almost soars right off the Foyer they're using and down the hundred foot drop to the city below.
But Sora easily catches one of the large flag poles jutting out of the railing with his Keyblade and uses the momentum to slingshot himself back at Riku. The brunet swings his Keyblade in an arch but Riku blocks and uses Sora's momentum against him, swinging him around and flinging him away again.
Sora catches himself on the flag pole with his hand this time. He swings around a few times before slowing himself down and looking over at Riku from his higher vantage point.
"This isn't working! Neither of us is going to win!" Sora calls out.
Riku, hair slightly disheveled and windblown, gives a breathy laugh in return.
"Are you admitting defeat!?" Riku teases and Ven misses Terra and Aqua so very much.
"Never!" Sora furrows his brow and looks like he's going to launch himself back at Riku to start their fight again.
Kairi beats both of them to the punch, "I'm calling it a tie! You both look out of breath."
Sora, from where he's hanging from the flag pole, laughs and nods, letting his Keyblade flash away. Riku dismisses his and nods, rolling his shoulder.
"Then it's your turn, right?" Riku walks over to Sora, just to the right of Ventus, Kairi, and Lea.
"Yup!" Kairi chirps, "Who wants to help me train?" She looks between Lea and himself.
Lea motions for him to go so Ven walks forward, letting his own Keyblade flash into his hands as Kairi summons hers. Her Keyblade looks out of place in her hands, as if it's not her own Keyblade.
Ven shrugs it off, knowing it's none of his business.
"You coming down from there?" Riku crosses his arms and looks up at Sora in amusement.
"I don't know, it's a nice view point and you went through the strenuous effort of sending me up here twice." Sora laughs, looking down at Riku.
Ven watches as Riku shakes his head and the blond thinks Riku has to be rolling his eyes and smiling, even though he can't see the lighter haired boy's face as he gets to the center of the Foyer with Kairi.
"I have to warn you, my fighting isn't nearly as impressive." Kairi tells him, falling into a stance that Ven doesn't recognize.
They're all probably self-taught.
Ven laughs and quips back, "I won't hold it against you."
Kairi lets out a huff of amusement and then she's all business. She charges at him, and she's not particularly slow, but she's definitely not someone with speed, like Ventus himself. He easily side steps her and goes to hit her opening, but she quickly block his attack and counters with her own.
He blocks, but the hit vibrates down his Keyblade and he dances away for a second to figure out how to do this.
He may not be a strategist like Aqua, but he's better than Terra had been. She's a slow runner, but she's quick with her Keyblade and a heavy hitter. He wishes he was more adept at Magic like Aqua or Lea so he could fight her from afar. Deciding to see what she's got, he charges in and jumps, twisting himself in the air to slam his Keyblade down on her but she guards. He starts wailing on her, but her defense doesn't waver and he decides he needs a new strategy.
He dances away again and catches a glimpse of their onlookers.
Riku is watching them but above him, Sora is staring down at the city below. Lea is glaring at the two boys with something like envy in his eyes.
Kairi doesn't give him time to focus on his surroundings for long. She charges at him and unleashes a string of attacks in a beautiful display of grace and fury. Ventus guards the first, but decides to simply dodge the rest as the force of her attack echoes through both blades and down his arm.
Which leads to Kairi chasing him and trying to attack him. He's glad his forte is speed, otherwise she might just get him and kick his out of shape butt.
He sees an opening and jumps at it. Or…over it. He twists in the air to land behind his sparring partner and uses the back of his Keyblade on the back of her knees, making her fall.
Ven easily catches her before she can hit the floor.
She laughs, "You sneaky little -"
Ven laughs with her, "Yeah."
Kairi stands up and Ven thinks he's never seen anyone lose a fight so gracefully.
"That was quick." Lea smirks at them and Kairi blows him a raspberry.
"That was really good, Kairi." Riku compliments her, "You're a natural."
"That fight was so short though!" Kairi sighs, "And not nearly as impressive as your fight."
"We have three adventures under our belt, Kairi. You have half an adventure. Not even that, actually." He looks up, "Right, Sora?"
Sora snaps his head back to them and looks confused, "Totally."
Ven laughs, knowing Sora has no idea what they were talking about.
"What are you spacing out over?" Lea asks, walking over to them.
Sora goes to respond but looks disgruntled. Like he can't really explain it. The brunet's eye flicker over to Ven and his discontented look increases.
"I, um…" Sora hops down from the flag pole, "I'm gonna go check something out." Sora leaves the foyer – not quite in a jog, but definitely not walking – and Ven watches Kairi and Riku share a look.
"I'll go after Sora, you should stay here and spar with someone who isn't Sora." Kairi smiles at Riku.
The silver haired teen nods, but doesn't look too happy about letting Kairi be the one to go after Sora.
Ven reminds himself to ask Kairi if there's anything going on between Riku and Sora.