"Do you ever wonder about the future?" They headed outside. Sora wanted to stretch a bit, and Riku had wanted to play video games. They had decided to walk through the warming air before their senses heightened and they could kill more together.
Two boys laughed in the distance. "I love you... got it memorized?" The words bounced off of the buildings around them and settled in their ears.
"Stop being so cheesy!" The shorter boy ran before the tall one pulled him into his grasp, nuzzling the short one between his shoulders and neck. The short one blushed as red as the tall one's head and whispered something back.
Sora wondered if Riku had ever felt like that, or had a crush on someone. He wondered who it would be...
"No." Sora's head jerked back to Riku, and he cocked his head questioningly. "The answer to your question- no, I don't think about the future much."
"Why not? Isn't there all that there is? The future?"
The two boys headed inside- the short, blonde one being kissed relentlessly by the tall one. Sora thought about who they were, if he would ever see them again. Maybe they went to his school!
"That's wrong. The future isn't all that there is- the future is a mass of mist. You might see something in there, and the closer you get the clearer it becomes- but as you continue to walk and reach it, you'll get lost or it'll turn out to be something completely different. You can't positively know what is in the future. What you do know is in the present- all the things around us, the things we live with and the things that happen to us- that's what matters. If you concentrate on the present, then you won't have to worry about the future. The future doesn't scare me at all."
Riku was thinking of Ansem again, Sora could tell. Would Ansem always be standing between them, no matter how hard they fought to destroy him? Would he ever leave?
"Let's head back. I have this amazing multi-player game for us- it's online, and after you get a hang of it through practice we can start a party and kick human and zombie ass together!"
Sora grinned. "You should be glad you're on my team. Otherwise, you'll have to fear for your life!" Riku laughed.
"As if." Riku rolled his eyes. "Race you!" Riku winked and in a flash was gone, running at top speed.
They ran together like they had all those years ago, and they ran like no time has passed.
But happy memories do not last forever.
...
Why must we live this way?
Why can't we ever be completely happy?
No matter the great things that surround us, there will always be a shadow looming near.
From that moment as a child that we realized that reality wasn't always beautiful and filled with laughter, from the moment that you look down on yourself and see something wrong...
That's when we realize that we were brought up on fantasies and unrealistic expectations for the future.
That's when the whole world breaks down in front of us, cracking and shattering and revealing the cruel truth beneath.
But as it unveils the truth and the world's glass mask comes tumbling around us, the shards needed to go somewhere. The world dug it's painful splinters into everyone that used to see it as it was.
That way, as you see the true world, you'll never forget the old one.
Even if it means for that ever step you take in reality, the remains of fantasy lie and slice within you.
Were we better off being born into cruelty, just so that the painful moments didn't bother us?
Were we better off hiding into the darkness until we begin to fade in it- lost in the endless twists and turns?
It would be equivalent exchange. Never remember the happiness that contrast against your harsh reality for never feeling happiness again.
Would it be worth it? If you don't feel happiness, your pain will never bother you.
But to live without happiness, to never shed a single tear of joy, is to live as though nothing good ever mattered inside your heart.
It isn't worth it. Because if you stop enjoying everything for the price of a couple bad memories, you give up everything that makes you, you.
Even if the glass shards of fantasy scratch their way inside of you, it still warms your heart.
Nothing is in black or white. You cannot expect to live completely in happiness, so don't travel into the depths of darkness.
When you live, you live for both.
Or it isn't living at all.
...
Sorry guys. I'm fighting off the flu, so this isn't very good (not that it ever was, but...)
Review, and hopefully I'll get better faster :P