Riku: Hey Riku here with the next chapter... Hikari is too distracted with cosplay to be here so I am here to start off this time. Let's go!

Chapter 35

By the time that Saru and Riku got home, it was already heading late into the evening. They opened the door to the house and saw that Zexion was in the kitchen, dressed in a white lab coat while he gathered up a few snacks and placing them into a lunchbox.

He looked up when the door closed. "Oh, you guys are back. How'd it go?"

"It was fun," Riku replied, smiling slightly. "So you're heading back to work tonight?"

"Yes. Vexen returned from his vacation earlier this morning, and that means I need to get right back to work at the lab," Zexion replied.

"Ah, all right then. Have fun with that," Riku said before moving over towards the couch to sit down.

"Also, don't be alarmed if Zack comes running upstairs to ask you guys about today. He seemed really ecstatic about you guys going out again," Zexion said before heading towards the front door.

"Weren't you ottersitting for me?" Saru asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"I was, but now Zack is taking care of it," Zexion answered. "Don't worry he is doing a fine job."

Saru looked at Zexion skeptically, but didn't comment.

"Honest," Zexion said. "But I guess you will have to see for yourself. I need to head off now."

After that Zexion headed out the door, leaving Riku and Saru alone in the room. "So how long do you think it's going to take before Zack barges up here and bombards us with questions?"

"You at least have a chance to avoid him," Saru commented before holding up five fingers. Closing each finger one by one, as if he was down the seconds before Zack would show up.

"He'd find me anyways."

By the time Saru got down to his last finger, quick footsteps could be heard coming from the basement staircase. Within less than a second Zack came running into the room with a huge grin across his face. "Hey! You guys are back! Awesome! So how did it go? You guys gotta tell me all about the second date!"

"Where's the otter, Zack?" Saru deadpanned with a threatening undertone.

"Hey hey, relax. It's sleeping down in its little habitat. Perfectly fine," Zack replied.

Saru glared at Zack with a calculating, almost skeptical gaze similar to the one he gave Zexion. After a moment, Saru attempted to move past Zack towards the basement, but his attempt was stopped by his eldest brother.

"Oh no you don't, you are staying here. I want you both to tell me about your date today."

Riku sighed loudly. "I wish you would stop calling it that… it isn't a date…"

"It's not a date if I'm carried out of the house unconscious," Saru snarked, lightly shoving Zack to get him to move aside.

Zack continued his hold on Saru, making sure he wouldn't be able to break from it. "Does that mean you didn't have fun?"

"Having fun with friends and going on a date aren't the same thing Zack," Saru deadpanned. "Unless you're implying that you've been intimate with every 'friend' you have."

Zack winced slightly before he started to look a little hurt. "Aw come on… I mean sure I used to jokingly flirt around with a lot of my friends when I was younger, but that's all in the past. All I want to know is how it went for you guys."

"He didn't actually break out into a fight this time against Yata… got close but I managed to stop it," Riku replied. "It actually seemed pretty tame between the two of them for the most part."

"You see! That's what I am looking to hear!" Zack said before pulling Saru over to the cough to have him sit down. Zack sat down in the middle once he pulled Saru down, with Riku sitting on the other side. "So tell me what else happened!"

"Well if you really want to know about Saru's side first," RIku said before smirking slightly. "He did sit next to Yata on almost every ride together."

"Because you sat with Sora on every ride."

"Really? Cause I am sure that you dragged off Yata several times to sit with him alone," Riku replied.

"I dragged him off so we didn't have to deal with all the tooth rotting fluff between you and Sora."

Between Riku and Saru's bantering, Zack was beaming. "This sounds like the date went really well! So Riku, you really were having fun getting to hangout with Sora again?"

"A-Ah… Well I mean… I don't really know. He is nice and fun to hangout with, but…" Riku trailed off, turning his head to the side. "He gets all weird sometimes when talking to me and just blurts out random compliments…"

"That must mean he really likes you," Zack replied.

Riku breathed out slowly while still keeping his head turned away. "You… you think so?"

"Take it from the guy that was quite the flirt back in the old days. Gushing over someone and throwing a ton of compliments seemingly out of nowhere is sure fire sign that he must have some feelings for you," Zack replied.

Riku adjusting himself slightly, placing his hands over his arms. When he turned back to face his brothers, they could see the slightest tint of red forming in his cheeks. "But… what do I do about it?"

Zack reached out and placed a hand on Riku's shoulder. "It all depends how you feel about it."

"I don't know what to feel though," Riku whispered. "Can't you talk to Saru first… then maybe I could figure this out once I see how to go about it…"

"That's all up to Saru if he is willing to talk about it," Zack said before turning his attention to Saru.

Saru just glared at Zack, as if to silently convey that he wasn't going to talk about it.

Zack raised an eyebrow. "There's nothing you can say? Nothing about how you feel towards Yata or anything about him about how he acts towards you?"

"He's an oblivious tsundere."

Keeping his eyebrow raised, Zack laughed lightly. "So you just know he likes you then?"

"Why are you so interested in our social lives?" Saru asked without answering.

"Cause you two are finally growing up! And plus, I do want to be here if you need any help. Take it from the 187 year-old vampire," Zack said proudly before pointing to himself. "I know a lot of stuff."

Saru scoffed at his eldest brother's flamboyant statement.

"Isn't there anything you can say?" Zack said before turning his head to the side. "Either of you?"

"I just… I don't know what to feel. I think I may have some little feeling, but I also still think… think about another from before…" Riku's voice quieted as he ended his words.

A hand was placed on Riku's back. Riku looked to Zack, who had a very solemn look. "I know it may be hard, but there are times when… when we do have to move on from those who have passed. We can still have feelings for them, but there is nothing else we can do."

"Well I still don't know what to do… Saru said I might be bi, but I don't even know what to think about that," Riku replied.

Zack turned back to Saru. "You said that to him?"

"He's attracted to both guys and girls apparently, so isn't that a true statement?"

Zack shook his head slowly. "It's more than just that. There are a lot of deeper parts than just saying straight, bi, or gay. Like… if there is any feeling in it. You know, whether or not it is truly a romantic feeling that leads to other feelings… aaaand I'm just really bad at trying to explain this."

Zack breathed in deeply before sitting back a bit so he could place a hand on both Saru and Riku. "Just please know guys, you don't have to be afraid of anything that you are feeling. It's only natural that you start to discover this the older you get. You find these feelings and you…" There was a small pause while Zack closed his eyes. Several deep breaths went by before he continued. "And you take what your heart is telling you and follow it."

Riku laughed lightly. "That's really cheesy you know?"

"Yeah? So what? It's a true thing. Trust me, I know," Zack replied, sounding as honest as he could. A moment later he went to ruffling both of the boys' heads. He started to chuckle happily while grinning one of his larger grins. "I'm just glad my little bros are finding their way in their soon-to-be love life."

"I never said anything about being in love. Riku's the one with a proper date coming up," Saru commented slyly.

Riku's face was burning red now while Zack turned to stare at him with the most excited face yet. "Oh! Is that so? And that all happened cause of today? You gotta tell me what led to it! And if you need any advice about what you should do on the date, just ask me."

"I… I uh…" Riku fumbled while tossing a glare to Saru, who was slowly getting up from the couch. He narrowed his eyes at this younger brother. "I'm going to get you back for this."

Saru smirked back at Riku. "Hope you have fun on your future date, brother."

Riku stood outside the house, letting the tension build up within him. He still could not believe that he was actually doing this. Not that it was too weird to out of nowhere, that wasn't it at all. He was actually looking forward to this night, but what came as the hard part was his racing heart and mind.

He was going to hangout with Sora for the evening… and it was going to be just the two of them. Though he still didn't want to think of it as a 'date' as Zack kept insisting on, he wasn't too sure what else to call it. He wanted to say it would be just them hanging out and nothing more, but he knew that was just a lie.

Even when he didn't really understand it himself, he knew that there was something between them. There was a pull that sent his heart pounding and it wasn't like anything he had felt before. Something that made his heart beat in a different way than he thought, and he wanted to know more about why it was that way.

One thing he knew though was that, Sora had to be the most unique person he had met in years, and there had been no one else quite like him. The way he was always so peppy and cheery about seemingly everything was always the first time that was brought into Riku's mind. The way Sora smiled made him always want to smile back.

That adorable and infectious smile…

Would Sora smile once Riku actually decided to knock on the door? Would he come running and greet Riku with the smile that made him feel so much happier and lighter? That smile… the smile he wanted to see more of… what could he do to make Sora smile more…

Riku snapped out of his thoughts quickly. He looked around to see that he was still standing in front of the door and still had not tried knocking. He let out a sigh as he rubbed his hand over his face, trying to straighten out all of his loose and flowing free thoughts.

He cleared his throat, trying to get himself back to his calm thoughts from before. Breathing in deeply he knocked on the door. He only had to wait a few seconds before he hear the door unlock with it swinging open in the next.

"Riku!"

There it was.

There was that adorable smile.

Riku grinned widely in return. "Hey Sora, I hope I'm not too late."

"No, no! You're perfectly fine! Come on in!" Sora said before pulling Riku by the arm into the house. "Vani isn't home right now but he will be back at some point."

"Does your brother know that I am even here?" Riku asked. He recalled back to when he first met Sora's brother. He was a werewolf yet didn't know about vampiric scent, leaving that thankfully unsaid. Either way Vanitas overall seemed to be the suspicious type and maybe a bit grumpy. Nothing quite like his own brothers.

"Yeah he does," Sora nodded. "Don't worry, he'll cool with you."

"He is? I thought he would be suspicious of me or something," Riku said as they headed into the nearby room that was the family room. "At least that's what I felt when I met him."

"That's how Vanitas is to everybody new. Always looking at them and being weird with him going on about people's scents and stuff," Sora replied casually.

"People's scents?" Riku asked, still remembering that he had not yet actually talked about the subject with Sora.

"Oh yeah!" Sora said before turning around to face Riku. "I guess I forgot to actually tell you, I mentioned before that Vani is a supernatural, but never got around to telling you which one. Let's sit down first so we aren't standing the entire time."

The two made their way over to the couch and sat down. Now that they were there and comfy, it looked like Sora was ready to continue, but Riku spoke up first. "You sure it's okay to just tell me something like that?"

"Well it's just my brother. I know he doesn't mind so much if I just say a little. I won't get into the details behind it. That's something that he would have to tell you."

"If you say so."

"He's a werewolf, that's why he was going on about your scent before," Sora answered.

"Ooh, I see," Riku said, trying to sound like he was truly hearing the statement for the first time. "Makes sense."

"But I'm not one though," Sora continued. "Again without going into it too much, Vanitas wasn't always a werewolf, but now he is. But he is cool with it. He's gotten used to it and stuff, but you could ask him later if you wanted to."

"So his brother really was bitten. I already had figured based on the eyes, but at least I got the confirmed answer now."

"Maybe, though it seems weird to just ask him out of the blue like that," Riku replied. "You know just asking how someone became a werewolf and stuff."

Sora shrugged. "I guess I am just used to it at this point. Anyways let's talk about different stuff! Like what we should do! I was thinking of video games to start and maybe we can figure out the rest along the way."

"Sounds good."

Sora grinned. "All right! Let's get a game and have some fun!"

Riku smiled back, finding himself chuckling slightly. "Yeah, and whatever we play I am sure I could totally beat you."

"Whaaat? No way! I am a pro at all the games I own! I am better than Vani and Yata and everyone else!"

Riku leaned in a little closer to Sora, his gentle smile forming into a smirk. "Then let's find out."

Sora froze up, not out of shock of fear, but like before he found himself lost in Riku's gaze. They were so close he swore he could almost feel the gentle, light breath of Riku brush over him. Everything faded away from his mind as he left himself get pulled into the deep and beautiful eyes that Riku had.

"Sora?" Riku asked softly.

Sora blinked but continued to stare, his smile turning into something more than just a usual grin. From what Riku could tell, his eyes almost looked distant or out of force yet at the same time he was staring right at him. The expression on Sora's face even looked like he wasn't even there at the moment. It was like he was lost in something in his mind… like he was daydreaming.

"Sora?" Riku tried again.

Sora blinked before quickly shaking his head. "Huh? Huuuh? What? O-Oh…" Sora's face began to heat up shortly after snapping back into reality. He could feel the heat slowly climbing its way up to his ears within seconds, and he was sure that Riku could see it clear as day. "S-sorry… I keep zoning out like that… I don't mean to stare though! I just… I um…"

"You don't have to be sorry," Riku started to say, but he couldn't find the rest of what he was trying to say. He wasn't even sure what he was even thinking about saying. "He keeps staring at me like that… cause he likes me right? Would it be a good time to talk about it now? To ask him? How… how would I even go about doing that? Zack said… to take what my heart tells me and follow it… but what is my heart trying to tell me?"

Breathing in deeply, Riku thought to at least give it a shot. "Sora, uh… is there something you want to tell me?"

Sora pressed his lips together, letting out a suppressed hum. "I… I don't know. Not right now." Sora started to shake his head. "Let's just play video games right now, okay? Have fun first and then we can talk after!" Sora jumped to his feet and ran over to the tv across from them. "You pick out a game and I'll get the system set up, okay?"

"I guess he isn't ready to talk about it either…" Riku thought before standing up to find a game to play.

After that things went back to going smoothly and the two of them ended up playing a series of different competitive games. There were some that Riku had won and others that Sora won, and even a few ties with some of the games. Either way, they ended up laughing over everything and having fun with their little friendly competition.

They hadn't even paid attention to the time. None of that mattered to them. The only thing their minds had been set to was having fun, and that was exactly what they did. But now they had finished and thought to sit back and just take a breather from everything.

Sora let out a relaxed sigh and leaned back on the couch. He closed his eyes for a moment, a smile forming on his lips. "I think… I think I want to try and say something."

"Say something?" Riku said, turning slightly to look over at Sora.

Sora nodded before opening his eyes. A faint blush started to reveal itself on his cheeks. "Y-Yeah… about before when I was staring. I mean if you wanna hear it… otherwise I'll feel silly…"

"You don't have to feel silly, Sora," Riku replied. "Just tell me what's on your mind. I'll listen, I promise."

"Okay," Sora breathed in sharply before lowering his head to stare down at the couch. "Well… the thing is… I know that we only have meet up a couple times and we text and stuff. But…"

Sora wiped his head up to look Riku straight in the eyes. "I think I really like you Riku! Like really really like you!"

Riku had come to figure that much, Zack had banked on it enough as well. But hearing the words straight from Sora… it was something different entirely. A fluttering feeling in his stomach formed with the pounding of his heart.

"You do?" Riku asked, his voice much softer than he expected it to be.

"Yeah I do. I don't know how to explain it… I know there has to be something… but ever since I met you there's just been this… I don't know, this pull that I felt in my heart." Sora placed a hand over his chest as he began to smile. "It keeps tugging each time I see you and I just get lost in it."

"A pull… that's what I felt about this… this feeling," Riku said without even realizing it.

Sora gasped before a wide grin spread over instead. "Really? You too?"

Now it was Riku's turn to feel the heat rising in his own face. He tried to speak, but all his thoughts were becoming jumbled, but he managed one simple word. It was one word that meant enough as far as he could feel. "Yes."

"So um… yeah," Sora started to rub the back of his head. "I really like you and I want to spend more time with you. So I was wondering… maybe… you think we could, you know try and do that?"

"You mean like dating?" Riku asked.

"A-Ah! Maybe? I mean yeah, like dating. Cause that's what you do when you feel like this right?"

"I wouldn't know," Riku answered solemnly. "I've never actually felt this way before, but I think so. I am pretty sure that Zack would say that's the right answer."

Sora scooted a little closer to Riku, every inch closer cause both their hearts to race faster and faster. "So do you wanna? I mean, want to try dating and stuff?"

While Riku could feel the heat in his face, his fingers were growing cold. He kept his eyes on Sora, studying his face. He looked to be just as nervous as he was feeling, yet he was still going to ask that serious question.

Riku knew that he needed to answer though. Waiting and staring wasn't going to get them anywhere. Slowly Riku reached out and placed a hand over Sora's hands. Carefully he smiled as warmly as he could. "Yeah, I think I would like that."

Riku: Finally after 35 chapters and all we got something started! Woo! Hope you all enjoyed!