Having a human in the midst of a monster sanctuary was one thing, but it had to be inconveniently days before Riku's birthday, one of the biggest monster gatherings of the year. Preparations for Riku's birthday had been going well, considering the catastrophic event that Kairi had single-handedly managed.
Kairi was insufferable, she had taken an extreme liking to Sora and spent all of her time showing him around the hotel, explaining to him that when one has a birthday this close to Halloween, as Riku did, one had do embrace pretends not to find it incredibly endearing.
Honestly, the hotel had been a secret from the human world for years, centuries even. Riku himself had built it back in the day when Axel, one of his best friends, had been run out of town when people found out he was a werewolf. Now, significantly a couple hundred years older, Riku was sure the human world had remained the same and that all monsters should stay hidden for their protection. That means that, even though Kairi insisted on telling Sora the truth so the guests could remain calm, he had refused and now wasn't sure how to continue to maintain the peace.
Truthfully, for a human, Sora was not as bad as Riku had anticipated; he trailed after Kairi all day, helping her with decorations and manned the bingo station when Namine had was struck with a vision and could do nothing but draw it all out in her sketchbook for the next hour and a half. Sora was, admittedly, quite helpful.
It wasn't until Sora started talking to Jack Skellington - Pumpkin King three hundred years running even if it was Riku's birthday - about how great everyone's costumes were that Riku had been forced to jump in, laughing manically and pushing Sora behind him, rambling off something about how funny Sora liked to be. Jack gave them a thoughtful look before shrugging to himself. "I'll leave you two to your jokes, I have to finish my Sandy Claws outfit in time for Christmas this year!"
He had stalked off and Riku was finally able to relax. That was it.
Despite the brunet's protests he had managed to corral Sora back upstairs to Riku's personal room and locked the door behind them. "Listen. I don't know how you found us, but you have to leave now." At his words, Sora's face fell.
"What about your birthday?" it seemed that Sora was genuinely upset about missing Riku's birthday, which was surprising to say the least, but he continued to be the bearer of bad news. It was best for the monster community.
"We shouldn't have let you in to begin with. We -"
"We have an emergency! Axel and Demyx have-" Kairi paused, having burst through the door and only now realized that Sora was in the room with Riku. "Oh." She paused, obviously not wanting to interrupt but, at the same time, needing the help to deal with the problem.
"What is it Kairi?"
She took a moment to assess the atmosphere between the two boys and eventually settled on simply answering Riku, "It's Axel and Demyx. They decided that the best way to decide who's prettier is a fight. I also have a hysterical new chef and room problems with the new guests. Axel is your friend, your problem." The sentence is punctuated with forceful pointing of Kairi's finger. Then Sora is suddenly struck by her gaze. "Take Sora," she continues, barely pausing. "You'll probably need some back up handling them. Then you two can continue your conversation."
The door slams when she leaves and Sora turns to Riku, oblivious of the wink she sent the hotel owner's way that caused what blood he had left to rise to his cheeks. "Shall we?" he asks quietly, startling the Hotel owner out of his stupor.
When one uses the word Fight to describe an altercation between two people, one thinks of punches and blood and spitting angry words at one another, one does not think of make-shift furniture fortresses on either side of the dining hall, periodically throwing dinner rolls at one another like children.
"Kairi's right. You're both pretty." Riku props his hands on his hips, looking from one fortress to another and the men surreptitiously peeking from behind them. "Pretty ridiculous."
A tall redhead shrieks, leaping from behind his fortress, shouting time out while making the universal 'T' gesture to his partner in crime before launching himself at Riku. "Kairi said you were busy so I entertained myself."
Grunting, Riku returned his best friend's hug. "I can see that. You're also demolishing my dining hall right before my birthday."
Letting go of his shorter friend Axel surveyed their war zone, noticing the dripping sauces and overturned tables littering the hall. "Surprise?" Axel tried, grinning sheepishly.
"It's fine, Axel. As long as you stop now."
The redhead nodded vigorously before noticing Sora, who had snuck his way over to Demyx's fortress and was leaning against it, chatting amicably with the blond. "Did you finally meet someone? Someone who you haven't known since you were a little bat-ling?"
Smacking Axel good-naturedly on the chest Riku answers, "We're not called 'bat-lings' and besides, he barged in here all human and I'm just trying to keep him from getting killed while I try to keep monsters a secret from him. Nothing scandalous about it no matter what you or Kairi insinuate."
Grinning Axel laughs. "You haven't seen Namine's pictures then, have you?"
Face red, Riku rolls his eyes. "You can pretend that Namine commands all but she draws half of those pictures to get you to do things you don't want to do. Go play that game with someone else. Preferably out of my dining room."
Mussing Riku's hair, Axel turns back to Sora and Demyx to summon the blond. "Sora, hey Sora, is that you?" he ends up calling instead.
The brunet turns, looking for the owner of the familiar voice before recognizing it. "Axel? What are you doing here?" he grins, walking back towards the two, this time with Demyx in tow. "When Kairi said Axel I didn't think it would be you though if it was someone causing trouble I should have guessed!" They both laugh.
"You two know each other?" Demyx asks, swinging an arm around Sora's neck and looking between him and Axel.
"Yeah, Axel is dating my brother. I didn't expect to see you here."
Ignoring the strange look Riku was giving him, Axel continues the conversation with Sora, "you think I expected you? If I had known I would have brought Roxas."
Sora's face falls at the news but he's quickly back to his old self. "Well, maybe I can travel back to Radiant Gardens with you? I was heading there anyway."
"Couldn't resist the party?"
Shrugging Sora smiles bashfully. "You know me."
"Not that this conversation is thrilling, but Axel and I have a room to get to. See you around Sora, Riku!"
The blond corrals his friend out of the room and the mess they made, taking Riku's minute of shock to escape cleaning.
"Small world, huh? How do you know Axel, anyway?" Sora asks when the two are out of sight.
Snapping out of his thoughts Riku struggles to come up with something believable. Instead he just says, "We're old friends."
It seems to be good enough for Sora who's acting like the conversation where Riku was kicking him out never happened. Instead the brunet turns back to the hall and says, "Guess we should get started here, huh?" and begins to clean like it's his job.
A/N: So this has been two years in the making. Probably wasn't worth it. Regardless. Hotel Transylvania has obviously come out and while the fist part was inspired by the commercials, this was inspired a little more by the actual content of the show. As far as I'm aware there will be one more part to this before I call it quits. Hope your trek up to Halloween is spooky~
-Reiver