Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Also, I do not own a phone company and I still have nightmares about the amount of money I spent in the past staying on the phone for hours.
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 16: Heart to Heart
After thinking about it for the entirety of the trip back home, Riku finally took out his phone, firmly decided to call Sora... not before checking that the door of his room was tightly close and his mother couldn't overhear his conversation, of course.
But when the phone started to ring, a rush of panic hit him and he closed the call immediately, without waiting for an answer.
He let himself fall on his bed.
Why. Did. Sora. Made. Him. Feel. That. Way!
'Come on, you know very well the answer to that question.' a little voice in his head whispered. He tried to ignore it, only for it to sound even louder. 'Just admit it, there are no other possibilities.'
Desperate to escape his own thoughts, he selected Sora's phone number a second time.
One ring, two rings, three rings. For a split second, he thought that the other boy would not pick the receiver -and for that he wasn't entirely sure if he was feeling relieved or disappointed- then Sora's unmistakable voice resounded in the phone speaker. "Hello?"
Riku let go the breath that he was unconsciously holding. "Hey, Sora." he said in a slightly high-pitched voice. "It's me, Riku."
"Hey, Riku. Sorry, I do not have your phone number." Oh, that was right, he had never given it to him. "What's the matter, something's happened?"
Riku didn't really know what to answer to that. "Uhm... not really. I just wanted... uh..." No answer from the other side of the phone. "I... uh... was wondering..." He was struggling to find an argument to talk about. "I was wondering if you remember about the guys from the arcade. Yeah, I called you because of that." he precised, more to himself than to the other boy.
"Tidus and the others? What about them?" Sora asked innocently.
"I met them today. For the second time, apparently..."
"You meant that you went to the arcade? I told you to call me if you went there!" Even without seeing him, Riku could perfectly picture Sora pouting on the other end of the line. 'Damn, I knew I should've called him.' "Never mind, any case I was busy, had to see the principal."
Riku couldn't hide a certain curiosity at those words. "Old crazy Xemnas? What did he want?"
"Oh, nothing particular. He just welcomed me in his school."
"What? Seriously?"
"Nope. He threatened to kick me out of the school."
"Come on, stop making fun of me."
Sora laughed gently. "Back on topic, what about the people at the arcade?"
Riku wondered for a moment if he had to push the matter of the principal a little further, but he got the distinct feeling that he wouldn't have been able to get a direct answer out of Sora. "Uh... what did we do with them last Tuesday? I have... a few blanks."
Silence. "You really don't remember?"
Riku was thankful that the other boy couldn't see him blush, considering that he himself didn't know why it was happening. "Uhm... not really. Do you?"
A second silence, longer than the first. "Well, I thought you would have remembered our first kiss."
Riku's heart stopped beating for a few seconds. He had to have misunderstood the last sentence, it was not possible that Sora had really said that they had kissed. He couldn't help but imagine what Sora's lips tasted like. For some reasons, vanilla flavor came to his mind.
"I... I'm sorry, I don't know why I did something so stupid! I can assure you that it was absolutely accidental!" he tried to justify himself.
A third long silence ensued, during which Riku could distinctly hear the beating of his heart into his ears. Then a burst of laughter erupted from the receiver.
"Oh-my-oh-my-oh-my. I'm sorry, Riku, I didn't think you would've seriously believed me. I knew it was a stupid joke, but I just couldn't help myself."
The desire to strangle that adorable idiot started to resurface once more in Riku's mind. Strangely, that feeling was somehow... muffled, as another one -not clearly definable yet- was predominating at that precise moment, something that looked dangerously close to deception.
Then Sora's voice chirped again. "Seriously, though, you're not really nice: how comes that kissing me would be something stupid?"
Riku felt stunned at those words. "Well... kissing someone against their will... I mean... it's not cool."
"But I never said it was against my will."
"...we didn't kiss, right?"
A long exasperation sigh could be heard from Sora's side of the line. And then a brief sentence came out from the phone. "Seriously, Riku, you should be a little more relaxed about your sexuality, let loose a little, I promise I won't judge you."
Riku couldn't help but shiver a little at those words. "Whatever. Any case, I guess I would remember something as disgusting as kissing you."
"Ouch! Much better, man." Sora laughed. And Riku smiled. "So, about the guys..."
"Oh, right." he remembered all of a sudden. "I was just wondering what did we do with them the other day. You know they are all... kinda bizarre..."
"Not the kind of guys you used to go out with, uh?"
There was something strange in the way Sora had pronounced the last sentence, like he wanted to imply something. "Well, not really, no." he finally admitted in all sincerity.
"Well, if I can give you an advice, stop judging people using society standards."
Riku winced at the seriousness of that statement. "What do you mean by that?"
"Otaku, geeks... high-schoolers that goes to the arcade or social outcasts for short. They are usually not very highly regarded by the rest of the student body. They can be good and they can be bad, but I hate people that judge them just because of some stupid value, arbitrarily decided by who knows who, who knows when. I want to choose for myself if people are worth my company or not."
Riku took a few seconds to elaborate Sora's tirade. Then he hesitantly spoke again. "...that's why you started talking to me?"
"Part of it." Sora answered after a few seconds, similarly hesitant.
Once more, an uncomfortable silence fell upon the two of them. Riku, whose ears were starting to catch fire, thought better to change the subject. "A-anyway, tomorrow is Friday, we should get the results of the Struggle tryouts, you know?"
"Of course I do. And then we'll celebrate, right?"
"We'll see." Riku answered elusively, but not really despising the idea of spending another evening with Sora.
"Great, then... have you heard about this new club called 'No Name'? If we pass the selection, tomorrow evening we'll go there, alright?"
Riku hesitated, then he shook off his doubts and took a decision. "Alright."
"Wow, really?" Sora answered incredulous. "I didn't even need to insist, you surprised me."
"Well, I'm full of surprises." Riku joked.
"Can't wait to discover them all." the other boy teased. And a flush manifested once more on the upperclassman's cheeks. "See you tomorrow morning on the bus?"
"Sure." he answered, for once not trying to hide the fact that he was starting to appreciate his company. "Good night, Sora."
"Good night, Riku."
It took a whole minute after Sora had closed the communication for Riku to let go of his phone. He felt like he would have lost the other boy the moment he had put the receiver down. And when he finally did it, the feeling of emptiness was so intense that he couldn't deny the truth anymore.
He was falling for Sora.
End Notes: Whew, another chapter is out. This one was kind of hard to write (for no special reasons except the fact that I'm not that well-versed in English...), but also surprisingly fun. I just can't wait to get to a certain part of the story where... argh, I can't write anymore: damned no spoilers policy!
Preview: The results of the Struggle tryouts are finally out! Will Riku make the team?
Next Chapter: Plans