Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. And yet no copyright law in the universe is going to stop me.

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 37: Magic Hour

On Thursday, a couple of boys were sitting on the roof of Twilight High, looking peacefully at the setting sun. None of them was talking, with Roxas doing his best impression at trying not to be interested to.

For the first twenty-two seconds, at least.

"So... we're cool?"

"We're cool." Riku simply answered, and it wasn't true that he was smiling. His eyes were watching the sky as it shifted from crystal azure to cloudy. "Can't really stay mad at you after what you did this morning." He then looked at his friend, and at this point the smile couldn't be denied anymore. "Seriously, it was pretty cool the way you stood up for me."

As an answer, Roxas looked away trying to hide a violent flush, which seemed to amuse Riku greatly.

"I guess you were saying the truth when you told me that you'd never leave me behind again."

"That's girly!" Roxas replied pulling his tongue, still carefully avoiding to directly face his friend.

"You're not in a position to judge."

"I'm not, I'm just stating the truth."

And then silence fell upon the two of them. Roxas was pretty sure that the thought that was crossing his own mind was also crossing Riku's.

"That felt like..."

"I know!"

Another silence, longer this time. Once more, it was Riku who broke it.

"So... what happened to him?"

Roxas looked at the ground, not really feeling like discussing that subject. "I don't know. He stopped coming to school the same moment you did. I thought..."

"He wasn't with me!" Riku felt the need to precise immediately.

Roxas couldn't help but feel relieved at those words. He didn't like at all to feel that way towards Sora, but he rationalized it as a consequence to what he did to Riku. Definitely not jealousy, though.

"Why didn't you tell me about the bet?"

Roxas started playing with a bang of blond hair, still not really feeling like facing his friend. "I... uhm... I had just found out..."

Even without directly looking at him, he could see Riku's eyebrows rise.

And then he finally chose to face him. "...but I guess I also didn't want to hurt you."

"Oh, don't worry about that, Sora beat you to the punch." Riku was smiling, but the tone of his voice was making clear that something was still shattered inside him.

"For what is worth, I don't think he really wanted to hurt you either."

Roxas felt surprised at his own words: why was he defending Sora? "I mean... I kind of got the feeling that he was trying to... ehr... protect you at the party."

Riku looked at him surprised. "Protect me? From what?"

To that question, Roxas didn't have an answer. More and more questions were popping up in his mind, though: why did Sora make that bet? What did he really want from Riku? Or just... who was he, really?

He had the feeling to have never seen the true face of the brunet, and he was pretty sure that Riku must have felt the same.

"What do you think you'll do?"

Riku closed his eyes. A few seconds passed, but just when Roxas was starting to think that he wouldn't get an answer, he finally spoke. "I don't know."

Roxas bit his lip. Once, twice. The third time, he finally asked the question that was weighing so much on his chest.

"Do you like Sora?"

Thirty long, interminable seconds passed, midway through Roxas realized he was holding his breath. Then, Riku finally answered. "I don't know."

Well, it wasn't a 'yes, sure', at least. Roxas didn't really have the time to think about the implications of that answer, though.

"So, what's the deal with your parents?"

Hearing those words, Roxas shivered. "Why are you asking me that?"

Riku slightly tilted his head to the side and looked at his friend, doing his best impression of the typical 'are you seriously asking me that?'

"...it's about the disciplinary letter."

"I know... I knew your parents, Roxas!" Hearing Riku call him by his name made the blond boy shiver. "They're not the kind of parents who would make a scene about a stupid letter."

"You don't know them very well, then."

"Maybe it's true, but I know you, and I know you wouldn't care too much about it. So, what's the deal, really?"

Roxas timidly looked at his friend: alright, he owed him that much. He took a deep breath.

"I was scared that the principal may write something about you... mentioning that you were involved." At Riku's quizzical look, Roxas kept talking. "My parents... they never accepted it."

"Oh!"

"I mean, they never accepted that I like... that I am..."

"The word you're looking for is 'gay', Roxas." Riku said kindly.

Roxas closed his eyes, before opening them again and looking straight at his friend. "Yes."

"Why?"

Roxas let out a nervous laugh and, this time, couldn't avoid looking away. "Oh, a plethora of reasons: 'that's not normal', 'you can be cured', 'what did we do wrong'..."

His voice started to crack, but he refused to stop and kept talking. "I told them that I liked guys, I trusted them. I just wanted some support, to be accepted. But they started looking at me in a different way, like I was... sick. They kept comparing me to my brother, saying that I should be more like him, be 'normal'. And I... I..."

Roxas didn't realize immediately that tears had started running down his cheeks. He realized it the moment he felt himself wrapped in a hug.

And then he started to cry.

Riku didn't know how much time he had spent holding Roxas in his arms without saying a single word as he was literally crying all of his tears. He was a bit uncomfortable in that position and his shirt was feeling wet.

Still, he didn't dare to let his friend go.

Finally, only when the sun had finally set, Riku talked. "Must have been hard being left alone."

He could hear Roxas sobbing, his head still deep buried in his chest. "I'm sorry. I have no right to complain, you had it so much worse than me."

Riku felt a wave of guiltiness overcoming him. He thought back to Sora's words.

'Your family is amazing. They accept you for who you are.' he had said. Only now he was realizing the meaning behind those words.

He had spent a whole year complaining about what he had lost, not realizing what he still had. Yes, he was a social outcast. Yes, he had lost his friends. But still...

He could always count on his family. And he knew that, despite their quirks, he could've always counted on them.

Roxas wasn't that lucky. And, probably, Sora wasn't either.

He felt some kind of strange pleasure in that realization, but at the same time he felt awful that his friend was feeling that way.

And so, he took Roxas' face between his hands and did the only reasonable thing he could do.

He kissed him.

He stood there, his lips resting on Roxas'. They were soft and vanilla-flavored, and Riku realized that that feeling was precisely how he had always imagined it. The other boy didn't move a single inch, nor he reacted to that, frozen as he was in that fragment of eternity.

And then, a few interminable seconds later, Riku moved away, slowly.

The two boys looked at each other for a moment, just before Roxas -surprisingly enough- closed the gap between them once more.

And once again, they were kissing.

End Notes: Yes, Sora Roxas and Riku are kissing! Surprised? Were you expecting it? Well, if you weren't... my objective has been achieved ;).

Preview: It's finally time for Riku to confront Sora, don't you think?

Next Chapter: Anima Archetype