Hikari: Hinyah~

Riku: Heyo *typical response ha* we managed to get a nice long chapter done this time!

Hikari: We'd rather longer chapter as don't want date to be 5ish chapters again.

Riku: Yeah, but we got this going at least, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 32

Thankfully the ride was not very long, or at least it didn't feel like that. But once it was over and the train pulled into the loading dock, Yata fumbled with the seat buckle, trying to get it to unlock.

"Do you need help with that, Misaki?" Saru asked, with his arms still wrapped around Yata.

"Yeah I could! Starting by you letting go of me!" Yata huffed as he still trying to unlock the seat belt, while also struggling slightly with Saruhiko still holding on to him.

"Don't go making a scene, Misaki." Saru commented, tentatively unwrapping his arms from around Yata. It didn't take long for Saruhiko to undo the buckle, freeing them both from the safety restraints.

Yata jumped out of the seat and scooted quickly over to the exit. He stood by the staircase leading back down to the ground level, but he waited there. He caught his breath while running a hand over his face. He then glanced back to see Sora and Riku getting out of their seat perfectly fine, with no complications between the two at all.

Sora and Riku walked over to Yata and walked a few seconds until Saruhiko was over next to them. Sora smiled again. "Okay! Let's figure out where to go next!"

The four of them headed down the stairs and began walking further into the park. Along the way Sora kept walking closer to Riku. He thought about what Vanitas had talked about with him and he wanted to try and act it today if he could. There was only so long he could wait on it before it would drive him insane.

He knew if he wanted to tell Riku how he would feel, he would have to do it the best way he could. But he was still not the best on directly stating what he was feeling inside. The only way he thought he could go about it is if he made it seem like he could segue into a conversation about it. Though even then he wasn't sure how to go about that.

"Aw… I should have asked Vanitas to be more specific…" Sora thought to himself.

Suddenly without even realizing it, he had moved to closer to Riku and ended up bumping into him. Riku stopped and looked Sora with a confused glance. "Huh? Sora you okay?"

"Ah! O-Oh yeah!" Sora stammered as he backed up. "Just got a little lost in my thoughts and I wasn't sure where I was walking. Sorry about that!"

Riku nodded. "All right then."

He then continued walking to catch up to Yata and Saruhiko who were only a few feet ahead of them now. Sora breathed out and caught back up to Riku. "Yeah… just thinking… about things… and stuff…"

Riku glanced at him again. "Oh? Anything important?"

Sora chuckled softly, staring down at the ground. "Yeah… you could say that. Trying to get my thoughts straight on something."

"Do you think it's something you would need to talk about?" Riku asked. "If you need, you could tell me."

Sora felt his heart racing. It pounded against his chest harder with each passing second. He was sure that Riku or anyone nearby would be able to hear it sooner or later. He just wanted to be able to tell Riku how he felt… why did it have to be so hard?! It was just one little thing he wanted to tell Riku.

Riku… the mysterious handsome boy that he only recently met. Sure Sora knew he could have been going to fast with his thoughts, but he couldn't deny the feeling he had in his chest every time he looked at Riku. fluttered in his stomach and the swelling up of words in throat. He had never felt those feelings this strongly before. He wanted to know more about them and see what else there was, but he knew he couldn't do that unless he made the next step.

"Sora," Riku's voice said, pulling him from his thoughts.

He looked to see that they had stopped walking again. Even Yata and Saruhiko had stopped and turned around to look. Riku now had his hand on Sora's shoulder and was looking at him with a concerned look. "Are you sure you are okay?"

"I'm fine. I just… I mean…" Sora breathed out, trying to look Riku in the eyes. He wanted to look him in the eyes and tell him. He wanted to tell him right there how he felt, but the longer he stared, the longer he got lost in the beautiful color of Riku' eyes.

"Such a pretty teal…"

"What?"

Sora froze up. Had he really just said that aloud? Right to Riku's face? Had he again complimented Riku without thinking, just like before? This was not helping him on wanting to tell Riku… it only made him more nervous than before. Quickly looking around, Sora saw something that he could use to get away from his heart trying to burst from his chest.

"Look! The Midgardsormr is running backwards this weekend only!" Sora ran over to point to a sign that indicated that the snake themed roller coaster was in fact running the cars backwards on the track for a limited time.

"Huh, never rode this one backwards before," Yata commented as he looked. "At least this one has normal seating…"

"Aw, did Misaki not enjoy sitting with me?" Saru asked, with a slight undertone of being upset.

Yata glared at him, looking as if he was going to say something back, But he only started, keeping his glare fixated on Saruhiko. He sighed once he realized he was never going to actually say anything. "Let's just get in line."

"Yeah! Let's do that!" Sora said quickly before heading towards the queue for the line.

Yata followed after him quickly, leaving Riku and Saru to catch up this time. As the two brothers walked, Riku hummed softly. "That's the third time Sora just made an odd compliment about me and then tried to divert from it…"

"Aand…?" Saru questioned, as if implying for Riku to continue on the topic.

"I just don't know," Riku whispered.

"Don't know what to make of it or don't know how you feel about it?"

"I still haven't tried talking to Zack yet on the subject, so I really don't know what to do."

"Well, you can either call Zack up while we're here, or just wing it."

Riku sighed. It wasn't that he was off put or bothered by the comment Sora had made. It was nothing like that at all. In fact it was the complete opposite. Just like all the other times Sora had done so, Riku felt a small fluttering in his chest and stomach. But even with the words spoken to him, he could never find words to say back. "I wouldn't even know how to wing it… maybe I'll figure out something later."

"Figuring out something as you go is winging it." Saru commented

Riku made another sigh. They were just a few feet away to where Yata and Sora stood in line now. "Just forget it."

"Whatever you say lover boy."

Riku nearly tripped just as they got up to the other two. "What the heck!? Do you even know the context of that word?"

Saru smirked slightly. "Maybe I do, maybe I'm using it by it's slang definition."

"What did he say?" Sora asked.

"Nothing," Riku grumbled out before Saru could try and embarrass him by it. "Let's just resume the game you had going on your phone."

"Okay!" Sora said as he pulled his phone back out to start it back up. Saru of course went back to his own phone game and paid no attention to the others.

The line was a bit longer than the last ride, but the boys weren't focused on that. They played through the rest of the game and by the time they got up to the front area of the loading docks, they had finished, with Yata coming in first followed by Riku and Sora. They weren't truly up to the front of the line though, from where they stood they had to pick the line they wanted to into for their seating in the train.

"All right!" Yata cheered. "I won this round. But now…" he turned to look at the loading dock. "Are we sitting up towards the front like the last coaster or somewhere else this time?"

Saru's answer was to grab Yata by the wrist and drag him towards the rows at the 'back' of the train.

"Hey! Wait a minute! What do you think you're doing?"

"Picking a row, while also trying to embarrass my older brother."

"Huh? How are you going to embarrass him?" Yata asked once they made it to the last row of the loading dock. Though because the train was running backwards, it technically meant by the trains' standards that they were in the front row.

"Recently he's been flustered when around Sora."

"Oh? Well I can say the same for Sora then," Yata chuckled as he watched Sora and Riku walk up to the front area of the line. "I never realized how jittery Sora could get. I'll have to tease him more later for that."

Throughout all this conversation, Saru had never let go of Yata, only shifted his grip so that they were now holding hands. Yata stiffened up slightly, turning his head to stare at Saru and then at their hands. He almost looked like he was about to pull away, but instead he decided to speak up. "Uh… Saruhiko? What do you think you are doing?"

"Currently waiting in line for our turn on the ride?" Saru asked innocently, a slight smirk on his face.

"No. I mean with… ah… you know…" Yata fumbled slightly.

He couldn't understand himself in the moment. He wanted to yank his hand away and yell at the stupid monkey again, but he still wasn't able to do it. Yata breathed out, trying to calm the feeling his heart was giving him. He wanted to try and ignore it, but he couldn't stop thinking about it. He wanted to ignore it as best as he could, but he knew internally why he hadn't let go. Saruhiko holding his hand… it was nice. He didn't actually mind it.

"You're going to have to be more specific, Misaki."

Yata averted his eyes away from Saruhiko. If he wanted to attempt to get any answer, he knew he couldn't do it if Saruhiko would only end up smirking annoyingly at him. "Why are you holding my hand?"

"Why are you letting me hold your hand?" Saru retorted.

"You're the one that grabbed me first," Yata stated.

"I grabbed you by the wrist, not by the hand."

"Then why did you switch to the hand?"

"Would you rather I still be holding you by the wrist?"

Yata huffed, getting fed up with the answers that were not at all helpful. Finally with the feeling fading from before he pulled his hand away abruptly. "Whatever."

"Tsk." Saru clicked his tongue before shoving both hands into his pockets.

The two of them waited quietly until the train pulled up and it was their turn to get on. They walked and sat down in their seats still without a word to one another. Yata still had not even looked back at Saruhiko even when pulling down the lap bar for the ride. It seemed that Saruhiko didn't have anything to say either even when the ride began.

The ride itself was fun, considering it was going backwards for them so they could not be prepared for what was coming. Though most of their amusing was as strong as it could have been, at least for how Yata felt. He had no idea what Saruhiko could have been thinking. But since pulling his hand away and refusing to look back at Saruhiko, he had felt… a bit upset by it. There was a slightly unpleasant feeling in his stomach that replaced what he had felt before.

He sighed as the coaster came to a stop. "Why do things like this need to be so freaking hard? Dammit…"

"Uh… hey…" Yata said as he looked over to Saruhiko.

Saru looked back at Yata, and eyebrow raised in curiosity.

Yata looked long and hard at him. Taking note of the calm and casual demeanor that Saruhiko was giving off. There was no snarkiness or annoying in the expression he was making. Just calm… and curious. Something different than what Yata had expected. He had at least expected a smirk or some retort out of the blue.

"Ah… sorry if i seemed a bit abrupt before," Yata mumbled quietly.

Saru appeared to shrug at the same time the train moved again, pulling into the station. They quickly undid the safety restraints and disembarked from the train. It wasn't until after they had cleared from the station was there time to pause and converse.

"Um…" Yata tried again. Never before had he ever found it so hard to just say a few things that were on his mind. He rubbed the back of his head as he tried thinking.

He wasn't able to ask his question though before Riku and Sora made their way over to them. Or maybe it was more of the fact he didn't want to ask Saruhiko anything so embarrassing while in front of the others. He knew full well that Sora would never let him live it down if he knew what he was going to ask.

Once they walked down the line that lead off the coaster and back into the park, Sora turned to face the group. If anything, Sora had become the clear leader of the group and it seemed to fit him well as that role.

"That was so much fun! If we have time we should go back and do that one again! How was it for you guys though being backwards in the back?" Sora asked Yata and Saruhiko.

"It was fine. A little harsh at some turns, but cool at least," Yata replied.

"Well I still definitely think we need to try again later and switch were we sit!" Sora stated. "Oh! Oh! We are close to the tea cups! Let's do that next!"

Sora ran ahead, leaving the three boys behind briefly. Riku blinked a couple times before looking to Yata. "Has he always been that energetic?"

"Well it feels like more than usual today, but that's just how he is," Yata replied before the three of them started walking.

"You sure he isn't trying to hide something?" Saru asked.

"Why would he be hiding something?" Yata asked.

Saru, without trying to alert his brother, was attempting to make eye contact with Yata before glancing over to Riku repeatedly. At first Yata didn't understand the gesture, but then it finally clicked in his mind. He looked to Riku and Sora, who was still far ahead of them.

"Oooh, yeah I get it. Totally agree with you there," Yata laughed.

Riku now took notice and narrowed his eyes in confusion. "What? What's so funny about that?"

"You're oblivious," Saru commented.

Riku narrowed his eyes further. "And you're no help."

"I aim to please," Saru retorted sarcastically.

"If this is what it is like with just the two of you, I seriously wonder what happens when you are with your other two brothers," Yata commented.

"We're at worst when it's just the two of us."

Yata raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"You'd be surprised. Zack does a good job of keeping us in check as well as Zexion," Riku replied.

By now they had finally made it into the line for the teacups with Sora was already there waiting for them. "Sorry guys that I ran ahead too quickly. Just really pumped and excited, ya know?"

"Yeah, and I wonder why that is," Yata said, chuckling slightly.

Sora pouted in a childish manner. "Don't start doing any teasing! We are here to have fun, not make fun of one another!"

"Agreed on that," Riku added.

"I prefer the teasing," Saru stated, giving his input.

"Well don't let yourself get carried away," Riku sighed, rolling his eyes slightly.

"No promises."

"So um…" Yata started to say. "How's that baby otter doing?"

"Doing alright. Seems to be adjusting fine."

"Did you ever, you know… give it a name or anything?" Yata asked quietly.

"Haven't decided on one yet, and will probably wait until I learn it's gender."

"Oh," Yata replied, he glanced to the ground and then back up to Saruhiko. "I guess that's something that isn't too easy?"

"It's difficult to determine gender when it's young."

"I see…" Yata's eyes shifted to Sora and Riku, who were standing next to him in line.

The two of them of course were caught up in their own conversation again with Sora no longer seeming as flustered as before. Of course he would recover that easily and go straight back to talking to Riku like he had before. But that of course meant it left Yata to try and talk to Saruhiko by himself.

"But…" Yata finally continued. "You don't even have any ideas for names at all? Like for either gender?"

"Why are you so interested in the baby otter?" Saru asked without answering Yata's questions.

Yata shifted slightly, his cheeks turning the faintest red. He lowered his voice, shifting his gaze to the ground. "Just… I was curious. Just wanted to talk."

Saru leaned in so that he was only a few inches from Yata's face. "If you're all that curious about me, we could do something besides talking." He whispered with a hint of something more in his voice.

Yata stared. "Wh-what? Why the hell would you say that?!"

Saru just smirked. "You're blushing, Mi~sa~ki~"

"Sh-shut up. Get that stupid smirk off your face… it's really starting to tick me off."

"Make me."

Yata grabbed onto Saruhiko's shirt, pulling him closer. He grunted angrily. "Be glad to."

"My, my, sadistic one aren't you?"

Yata faltered slightly, letting go of the shirt. "Hell no! Get that idea out of your head!"

By this point Riku and Sora took notice of what was going on behind them. Sora frowned slightly before nudging Yata. "Hey Yata, don't cause a scene. There's children in line."

Yata blinked before looking around. There were children, with a few turning to give a quick confused glances towards them.

Before Yata could respond, the line moved forward and it was their turn to head on into the ride. Riku now was the next one speak up. "So… are we all going to ride in one teacup or separate… cause I feel I am going to have to keep an eye on you two." He gave a slight annoyed glance to Saru and Yata.

Saru just shrugged. "He was trying to be social."

Riku rolled his eyes. "And you were what exactly?"

Without any argument or agreement the group ended up heading into a tea cup. Due to how large the teacups were, all four guys managed to sit in their perfectly fine with room to spare.

Riku had shoved Saru's scrawny arse into the teacup first before following him in. Sora happily bounded in after, and then finally Yata. As it was a circular bench, Saru and Yata were sorta next to each other, separated by the guard rails on either side of the door.

There were a total of twelve cups, three to a small turntable, four smalls to a large platform.

"So which way are we rotating this?" Sora asked.

"How dizzy do you want to be?" Saru answered with another question.

"Very!" Sora exclaimed, but then quickly turned to Riku. "Well if you are okay with going that fast. I know Yata is at least."

"I'm fine with it," Riku replied.

Saru clicked his tongue before answering. "Then rotate with the outer plate."

"Got it!" Sora said before grabbing a hold of the wheel. The others then grabbed on after him.

Soon enough the ride announcer said the rules and the teacups started to move. The outer platform began to rotate clockwise while the smaller turntables rotated counter. Sora enthusiastically started spinning the wheel clockwise, which turned the teacup counterclockwise.

"The other way. Spin it the other way." Saru commented, letting go of the wheel.

"Oh sorry!" Sora shouted.

The group let go off the wheel and changed how they held it to start spinning it the other way. After a bit of spinning, they were already going a fairly fast speed. Then Yata choose to speak up. "You think we can get this going any faster?"

"It's possible." Saru commented, not really giving much effort to help them spin.

The other three began to pull and turn the wheel faster, making everything around them seem to blur. They were spinning so fast that they had to fight against centrifugal forces to keep turning the wheel of the teacup. Saru just gave up helping entirely, letting himself get thrown back against the inside of the cup.

Eventually because of the force and Saru's rather lightness, he ended up sliding right into Riku's side. Riku gave him a side glance, with only the slightest bit of annoyance. Saru returned his brother's glance with one of his own, although the younger looked a bit nauseous.

Thankfully the ride did not last for much longer. The cup started to slow down until it came to a complete stop. An attendant came by shortly after and unlocked the doors to the cups, letting the boys file out.

They all headed out of the ride and were once more back in the main pathway that lead around the park. Saru was barely able to keep himself upright, let alone walk properly, so it wasn't long before he collapsed onto the nearest person, which just so happened to be Yata.

Yata flinced, tensing up slightly. He turned to see that Saru was the one who had flopped on him, those he had no smirk or snarky expression. Instead he looked dazed and out of it.

"You're not Riku…" Saru murmured out.

"Of course not! Now how about you get off of me!"

"But you're the perfect height for this." Saru had shifted slightly, his head resting on top of Yata's, with his arms wrapped around the smaller boy.

"Well I did not ask you to get all clingy all of a sudden!" Yata shouted as he looked over to Riku and Sora. With his cheeks no doubt very red, he puffed them out, trying to keep an angry composure. "Get him off me!"

Saru proceeded to wrap his arms tighter around Yata as if in response to what was asked, giving an almost pouty face at Riku.

Riku sighed. "Saru get off him. He's not your chocobo plush."

"You… have a chocobo plush?" Yata asked.

"I know he's not my plush. He doesn't kweh." Saru retorted at Riku, still refusing to get off of Yata.

"What the…." Yata commented, caught a little off guard by Saruhiko's comment.

Riku finally marched over to Saru and pulled him back by his collar. "We're starting to make a scene. Let's not make make it go any further."

Saru grumbled incoherent nonsense, finally letting go of Yata and taking a wavering step back. His balance was still off and Saru was still a tad nauseous, so he stumbled his way over to the nearest bench and sat down.

"I think maybe we should just take a quick rest for now," Sora suggested when looking at the dizzy Saruhiko.

"I agree. Maybe a little breather would be best." Riku stated.

Yata nodded, giving only a short glance to Saruhiko. "I don't mind, just as long as he doesn't try using me as a pillow again."

"But you make for a great pillow, Misaki." Saru commented.

"That isn't what you should say to someone!" Yata grumbled, his cheeks red once again.

"Why not? I like seeing you all flustered and blushing like a virgin."

"Okay," Riku interrupted before Yata could try to say anything more. He stepped between them, crossing his arms. "We're ending this here."

Hikari: Well, when you can't figure out how to end a chapter... have a half 4th wall break by a character...?

Riku: It was either that or make this a reaaaaaally long chapter.

Hikari: And if we kept going, this wouldn't have been posted tonight.

Riku: True true. But either way, hope you all enjoyed!

Hikari: Please follow/favorite/review if you haven't already as we like the feedback. Until next time, kweh-nyah~