Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do have, however, a brother who owns a sport car and drive it the same way as Cloud.

Warnings: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

Chapter 4: Antithetic Duo

Tuesday morning.

A sport car was running through the roads of Twilight Town, at least thirty miles/hour over the limit. A muscular boy in his early twenties with spiky blond hair was driving and yawning, his left elbow stretching out of the car window and his right hand nonchalantly controlling the steering wheel.

Sitting behind him, two boys a few years younger were struggling not to fall asleep.

"Sora! You're drooling on me!" Roxas elbowed the small brunet next to him, whose head was peacefully resting on his shoulder.

Sora yawned and tried to regain a semblance of dignity. "Sorry, Roxas, I didn't sleep a lot last night. And to think this afternoon I also have a match..."

Roxas couldn't help but roll his eyes. "I can't really understand what's so interesting in a sport as stupid as Struggle. It can be resumed as 'hitting people with bats'."

"Are you kidding?" Sora answered incredulous, immediately shaking any trace of sleepiness off. He couldn't believe that there was someone on the planet unable to perceive the beauty of that sport. "Struggle is a highly strategic game and like the best thing ever happened since... since..."

"The plague epidemic?" Roxas suggested innocently.

And Sora pouted. For three whole seconds at least, then he started again to praise Struggle's supposedly virtues, much to Roxas' disdain.

"You should try it, seriously." he finally concluded after a long tirade. His eyes then shone with excitement. "Hey, they are holding tryouts tomorrow, you'd be a nice addition to the team."

"I'll think about it..." Roxas answered, not having the slightest intention of doing something more than just think about it. "...but I don't exactly have the 'physique du role' for that."

"Neither do I, your point being?"

He sighed, realizing that discussing with Sora was perfectly useless. For the following ten minutes he kept on listening to a seemingly endless tirade about why he had to absolutely try to get on the Struggle team. In the end, the only way he had found to make Sora stop was to promise him that he would have come see his game that afternoon.

The driver left the two of them at the entrance of Twilight High a moment later, then the red car quickly disappeared at the horizon.

"Your brother is nice to give us a ride every morning."

"The school is on the way to Cloud's work place, it's not like it's a big deal for him." Roxas checked the time on his phone. "Come on, we're late for breakfast, the others should already be at the cafeteria."

"Uh, sorry." Sora answered apologetically. "I told Riku I would have breakfast with him." When Roxas didn't answer, he kept on talking. "Why don't you come with us?"

Roxas stiffened at that proposition. "...I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Why not? What could happen?"

"If I get closer than fifty feet from Riku? My nose takes the risk of breaking. On his fist." He was trying to look funny, but it was painfully clear that there was something more serious beyond the whole story.

"What happened between the two of you?" Sora asked as innocently as he could.

Silence.

"Don't feel like telling me?"

"Nothing worth mentioning, I guess." Roxas finally answered, averting Sora's gaze.

"You know, if Riku did something bad to you I could talk to him."

Roxas looked at his friend and smiled. A sad smile. "Do you really think he did something like that?"

He observed Sora putting his hands behind his head and looking at the sky. He had the habit to do that when he was reflecting. "I don't know." he finally answered. "It strikes me as a nice guy, but I may be wrong." He then looked straight at Roxas' eyes, managing to embarrass him. "Hey, Rox?"

"Uh?"

"Have you ever taken a liking to the wrong person?"

Roxas looked in front of him. "I'm never wrong about people." He was merely stating a fact, no trace of arrogance or boasting in his voice. He paused for a moment, then he grinned. "...and I got the feeling that it's the same for you."

Sitting at his usual spot in the cafeteria, sharing company with his usual cup of coffee and chocolate-croissant, Riku was keeping on looking around him. The central table was filled with just six people: Roxas and Sora weren't there yet. The thought that the brunet wouldn't come had crossed his mind a few times, but from what little he knew about him, Riku was sure that any moment he would have appeared from behind him and said something like...

"You were keeping a place for me? That's unusually nice for you."

He turned his head to see the small boy grinning widely while holding a single glass of chocolate milk and two slices of pizza on a small tray. Without bothering to wait for an answer, he took the free seat.

"I wasn't keeping it for you, this place is always free." Riku felt the need to specify. "And it was supposed to stay so."

"I thought we'd decided to have breakfast together this morning."

"No. You decided to and I was too lazy to argue with you."

"Oh, so you want me to leave? And I even bought some pizza for you..." Sora asked, pretending to be hurt by those words.

"...shut up and sit already."

Sora smiled and obeyed without saying a word. Well, as long as he didn't talk too much, he could endure his company, Riku thought. More importantly, he could show Kairi and Seifer that the popular new boy preferred his company instead of theirs. Yes, that was the reason he had let Sora sit there. Definitely not because he was starting to appreciate having him around.

He looked once more towards Seifer's table, only to realize that Roxas had reached them and... wait, was he wrong or that little bastard was just staring at them? He had averted his gaze the second Riku had looked at him, but he was certain to have caught him doing that. His fists clenched instinctively.

Sora didn't fail to catch that. "Something's wrong, Riku?"

His voice made him come back to reality. It had always been that musical?

"Nothing. Just a little piece of shit whose insignificant existence keeps reminding me why I hate this school and everyone in it." The words were out before he could stop them, realizing too late that showing Sora his inner feelings was the last thing he wanted. Especially those kinds of feelings.

Sora looked at the general direction Riku was glaring. "Are you talking about Roxas?"

Riku stiffened: he had guessed it perfectly right. He turned his head to look at the brunet and tried to sustain the gaze, but he found himself surprised by the decisiveness that he saw behind those impossibly blue eyes. "What if I was?"

"What happened between the two of you?"

"Why do you think something happened between the two of us?"

"Would you stop answering every one of my questions with another question?"

That got him. He quickly looked the other way around, staring at the wall like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "It's... complicated." he finally said. "Nothing worth talking about, anyway."

After a couple more seconds, Sora closed his eyes, took his glass of chocolate milk and ended it in a single gulp. "Roxas said the exact same things, you know." For some reasons, that irritated Riku even more. "But it's okay if you don't want to talk about it, it's your business after all."

Riku thought that Sora was right, but at the same time he found surprising how easily he had given up inquiring about the subject. At least he had a few redeeming qualities.

"Oh, on another note, do you have plans for this afternoon?" he then suddenly asked, out of the blue.

"Maybe." Riku answered elusively, despite knowing way too well how desperately empty his agenda was.

"Thought so. You know, I'm on the Struggle school-team and we'll have an exhibition match this afternoon, why don't you come see it? I don't know how much you know about Struggle, but if you'll like it, you could take part in tomorrow's tryouts."

Riku shivered at those words: a few uncomfortable memories of the time he was on a sport team flashed back to his mind, noticeably those spent in the changing room after 'The Day'. "I had planned to go to the arcade." he concluded, stating the absolute truth.

"That's not a problem: the match will be around 4 PM, we'll have all the time to go there after it."

"'We'?"

"If you come see my game, I'll come with you to the arcade."

"And that's supposed to motivate me because..." That earned Riku a small pout of annoyance from Sora. And, once more, he couldn't help but find it really cute. "I'll think about it." he finally added, not having the slightest intention of doing something more than think about it.

Sora blinked at those words. "It's impressive how similar you and Roxas actually are, you two keep giving me the exact same answers..."

'Don't even try to go there.' Riku thought. "...alright, I'll come. Only this afternoon!" he added immediately after. "I don't have the slightest intention to join a sport team."

"That's a shame." Sora replied, eyeing him. "Looks like you have the perfect build for that, you could be great at it."

And again with the blush! At this point, Riku was starting to suspect that Sora was trying to embarrass him on purpose. Thinking about it, though, he was right: Struggle was quite the physical sport, most of the people in there were quite well-built, how could a small cute boy like Sora, who looked like he would weigh little more than fifty pounds, be part of the team?

The usual school bell interrupted the flow of his thoughts. Sora quickly took all of his stuffs and started walking towards his friends, but not before remembering Riku the time and place of the Struggle match.

Well, at least he would see with his own eyes how that scrawny brunet could manage to be on the team.

End Notes: So, here's a chapter about Riku and Roxas mutual feelings. Hope you liked it and... I don't want to beg, but please, if the story isn't so bad and it made you smile a little bit, leave me a little comment, I really need feedback to try and improve my writing. Pretty please?

Preview: The game is on: Sora's exhibition match has started! And Riku finds itself confronting an old friend...

Next Chapter: Burning Sparks