The Realm of Darkness was a narrow path that stretched endlessly through absolute darkness. However, the darkness was not absolute in blackness. Dim pulses of purple and blue embered in the corridor to glowingly reveal the edges of the pathway. The cool hues shone delicately on the faces of two boys who had found their way in.

The younger of the two, Sora, was a kind-hearted individual. He had a heroic personality and was quick to fuss as well as quick to forgive, with bright blue eyes that currently lay closed—sound asleep, he lay on the floor of the Realm of Darkness. Older by only a year, Riku lay in stillness next to him. Riku was a boy who was not afraid to go beyond his limits, cooler tempered than his friends, and always seeming to stew behind an untouchable wall, the dark and mysterious atmosphere seemed to suit him much more than the sunny sands of the Destiny Islands.

Riku twitched in his sleep and his green eyes shot open, a harsh look falling upon his face.

Sora and Riku's hands were clasped together. When their island fell to pieces and was swallowed by the dark storm, Riku had offered a hand to Sora to take him beyond its destruction. Stepping into the darkness itself was the only way to keep from disappearing along with the Destiny Islands. The darkness was harsh—sure, the strength and cover it provided was what Riku needed in order to protect the things that mattered. But in the quiet, Riku felt irked by something stewing within him.

Riku pulled hard at his hand and tried to break free from his friend. This jerked Sora into waking, gripping tighter, thinking he was about to lose the hold on the hand that had saved him from disappearing.

"Let go of me!" Riku harked. He tried to pierce through Sora with a glare but to no avail. Sora was squinting harshly, his eyes still adjusting to the darkness around them. Riku was well awake and took himself to his feet, yanking hard Sora's arm to break their clasp.

Sora refused to let go. He had been brought up to his knees by Riku's pull but the boy only held on tighter, grabbing onto Riku with his second hand, really refusing to let go. When his eyes had adjusted and he met his gays with Riku's, he saw that he was looking at a stranger.

"You're so annoying! I said let go!"

"Riku, what's gotten into you!?"

Sora's choice of words couldn't have been more appropriate and his pleading voice resonated something within Riku that snapped him back to reality. His uneasiness bubbled to a boiling point and he stopped straining against Sora's grip, dropping to his knees to find himself now level with Sora.

Riku began choking then, and coughing violently as if he'd inhaled the ocean water, but what came out of his mouth was in no way water. A black sludge surged from his lips and onto the ground with a horrid splat. It slinked away, falling off the path and into the darkness below.

"Riku!" Sora still held tight onto Riku's hand and kept him from falling over. He felt terrified watching his friend suffer, and the noises that came from Riku were more than worrisome. But Riku only felt embarrassed. He was always the hot-shot and the one with a step over Sora, so for his younger friend to see him sweating and so weak now was worse than whatever it was he felt he'd coughed up. He'd given into the darkness to acquire strength, but this—this was shameful.

A few moments of silence passed and neither of the two said anything. They were each afraid of different things right now, but were both tongue tied nonetheless.

Riku let out a few deep breaths and realized both of his hands were wrapped tightly around the whole of Sora's one hand. Shameful. He was almost certain that it was Sora who had grabbed his hand with both, but his mind was dizzy and he still felt a lingering strangeness in his stomach. His hands trembled with how tightly had been holding on, his knuckles surely white beneath his black gloves. He wanted to let go, but at this moment there was nothing Riku feared more than losing Sora to the darkness he'd brought upon the island himself.

Earlier on the island, Riku willingly decided to succumb to the darkness. He thought it'd keep him safe and give him the strength to keep his friends safe as well, so he wondered why it had begun playing tricks on him. He began to fear for Sora's safety as he wiped a bit of excess darkness that dripped from the corner of his mouth.

Riku's eyes shot up then, realizing he might not have been the only one who swallowed darkness on the way down here. He kept one hand around Sora's and used the other to check his friend of any darkness that may have snuck its way into the boy. He was frantic, turning Sora's head this way and that, and he even lifted his necklace and looked between the messy tuffs of hair on his head. He looked silly, but his guilt overrode any other feelings.

"Sora, Are you all right? Did you swallow any of the darkness?" Riku stopped his franticness and head Sora's face steady so he could search his eyes for darkness too, not sensing anything out of the ordinary other than a tinge of fear, most likely caused by Riku's darkness expulsing moment just a second ago.

"I'm fine. What about you?" Sora knocked away Riku's hand from his face. "What was that—thing—just now?"

"Darkness. While I did let the darkness consume us, I didn't think it was possible for us to consume darkness."

"So that just now…that was darkness? Isn't that what took our island!? Riku why would you—?"

"What matters now is that we're safe—that you're safe. Okay?"

Sora didn't say anything. Instead, his head dropped to the ground and Riku felt Sora's fingers loosen their grip on his.

"Hey, Riku…what you said just now. Do you think I'm annoying?"

"Sure, you're always annoying."

"I'm being serious!"

"Then no, you get on my nerves sometimes, but that's just—"

"Then why did you say it like you really meant it? When you had the darkness inside you, you said those things with so much hatred in your voice."

"Listen, Sora. Whatever I said when I was being controlled by the darkness, I said while being controlled by the darkness. Anything I said tonight—I didn't mean it."

Sora's head shot up and Riku saw a harsh glare on his face. For a moment Riku thought maybe darkness was at play, but that didn't seem to be the case. Sora's words were sincere and full of hurt.

"Then what about Kairi? You said Kairi was coming with us! I guess you didn't mean that then either, did you?"

Riku thought back to when he last saw Kairi and he winced with guilt. He knew Sora would be unhappy if he told him of the awful things he said to Kairi while he'd been under the darkness's control. When he'd opened the door and subsequently opened his heart to the darkness beyond, he didn't think anything of it at the time. He wasn't fully aware of the effects it would have on him. He was promised strength, but what he said to Kairi… It wasn't his fault—he couldn't do anything about the words the darkness pushed him to say and yet he found himself responsible for pushing Kairi away with his words and for whatever Sora was feeling right now. He bit back and forth within himself, starting an internal battle of sorts.

"Sora… I'm sorry." It was all Riku could muster.

Although Sora was quick to forgive, Riku wasn't so sure he deserved it. He felt it unusual to still be holding his friend's hand, especially now that the need for it had gone, so he slowly let his hand slip from his, not expecting the fast reaction of Sora to grasp back at his hand.

"Wait! Please don't let go. We'll get Kairi back. We'll find her, but don't…don't let go of my hand. Not here."

Riku was startled by Sora's shameless words and saw that he was fighting back tears now, from losing Kairi, or something else. Riku tried to process this, Sora was always such a crybaby but this was different than a defeated pout, this was hurt and fear. On any other occasion Riku would be teasing Sora and Sora might play back, but now, the boy with tears on the edges of his eyes couldn't seem to be less ashamed of his tight fixation on Riku's hold.

It didn't take long for Riku to recall that Sora's sleep patterns had been dangerously disrupted as of late and he remembered something about him babbling on with a certain reoccurring nightmare earlier that day.

"Sora, those nightmares of yours… Are they still…?" Riku didn't need to finish his sentence, nor did he know how. Sora had his head down once more, but even from that angle Riku could see the tight-lipped expression on his face.

"Mhm." Sora's single response said everything Riku needed to know for now.

Riku didn't pry. Instead, he waited for Sora to begin talking about them if he wanted to. He was sure that it was something he wanted to talk about—he spilled a mess of words earlier on the beach, but if Riku was going to listen he wanted Sora to be calm enough to make sense of what he was saying.

"My nightmares… When I close my eyes, I see you, Riku."

"Me?"

"You're standing there in the ocean, holding your hand out to me. There's a big wave that's about to come crashing down and I know that if I don't take your hand… Then you'll drown. So, I reach out to grab your hand, but then I'm the one drowning."

"Is that why?"

"And there's a part of the nightmare with Kairi too. In that one, she's reaching out to me. And if I don't take her hand…" Sora bit his lip. "I wind up drowning."

Getting Sora to talk was giving him a bit more energy. His eyes shifted about as he searched his dreams and brought back what he could recall. Riku didn't quite understand—it was always hard to follow along when someone told you one of their dreams, but he listened as intently as he could.

"You know when you're trying to run in a dream and for whatever reason you just—can't? Like, you're not fast enough, no matter how hard you're trying? Your legs are slow and everything pushes against you… Well, it was like that, and I couldn't reach either you or Kairi's hand. That's when I'd find myself falling backwards into the ocean and sinking down into…darkness."

Sora paused for a second and took his breath, but the more he tried to find a calm the more he trembled to say his next words.

"And I'm afraid… I'm afraid of the darkness—more than anything. So please, just for now, don't let go of my hand. I'll drown."

Sora let out a shaky breath and fell forward into Riku's chest. There, Riku couldn't see Sora's expression. He couldn't tell if he was crying. He couldn't tell if it was his fault or what he could do to fix things if it was. And he couldn't tell if he really felt the sudden wetness of tears on his shirt as Sora fell completely silent, or if he just wanted his friend to find a little comfort in him so that he could forgive himself for bringing him here.

No matter, he would take responsibility.

Riku ran a hand through the mess of hair and tears that was Sora. He lowered his voice to whisper through the dark—a promise to not let go of his hand, and almost like an echo, Sora repeated the words.

A promise to never let go.

"Because if you let go…"

"Don't worry Sora, I won't let you drown."

For the most part, there was nothing to do in the Realm of Darkness but sleep, which is what the two boys, covered in shadows, did—or at least, one of them did. Their hands now forever entwined, Sora slept soundlessly next to Riku, who could do all but rest at the moment. He wasn't sure if it was near midnight or if morning had already come. It was impossible to tell in this land of eternal night whether the sun had risen or not back on their home, the Destiny Islands.

A sudden flash of realization came upon Riku.

There were no more islands for the sun to rise upon.

Once more, Riku was panged with guilt. He couldn't help but feel it was his fault—no, he knew it was his fault. In his eagerness he brought darkness upon the island. The day before they'd plan to sail on their raft, Riku and Kairi set out to gather supplies around the island, seeing as how Sora was nowhere to be found, most of the food duty was up to them. There were a couple of mushrooms on the list, so they decided to split that part between the two of them. Kairi had found the first two bundles, so Riku was in charge of the last. He looked everywhere around the island for another bunch of mushroom and finally found it in the secret place—a cave special to him and Sora when they were children.

He had looked around, somewhat annoyed at the fact that it wasn't just his and Sora's drawings that marked the wall anymore, but Kairi's now too. He always felt it unfair that Kairi had grown to be Sora's favorite. Riku cherished both of his friends. He'd do anything for them. Anything. Yet Sora treated him and Kairi completely different and Riku knew it was because Kairi was a girl. He didn't want it to ruin the perfect friendship the three of them had, and Riku would interrupt the two whenever he could. Over the years, it made him bitter, he supposed. And his teasing became more spiteful than anything.

The mushrooms were growing in the furthest corner of the cave next to a range of thick roots that had grown into the cave. Riku plucked the mushrooms from the ground then heard a sound from behind him and quickly whipped round to take a stance. He did look a bit ridiculous, where his wooden sword would have been to threaten the danger, he held a mushroom. But the stranger in the back of the cave, in front of the large and mysterious wooden door, did not laugh. He did not—seemingly, have a face at all. An oversized brown cloak covered his body and hid him in shadow.

"Where did you come from?" Riku demanded to know.

"I've come to see the door to this world." His voice was faraway and sounded detached.

"You're from the outside world, aren't you? You're not from the main island."

"This world has been connected. Tied to the darkness…soon to be completely eclipsed."

"Yeah? Well, you've seen your door! Now, leave—this place belongs to me and my friends only—just us."

"Your friends? Pointless, even if you do not yet know what lies beyond the door."

"Wait, this door…does it lead to the outside world?"

"There is still so very much for you to learn. The darkness can aid you—you who understands so little."

"Is that so? How about I open this door and show you just what I know?"

"A worthwhile effort..."

Puzzled enough by the stranger's words, Riku dropped his guard. He looked over to the large wooden door next to him. It had always been a dream of his to leave the islands. Ever since he was a small boy, that's what he wanted to do. Saying he wanted to leave for Kairi's sake and to find out where she came from was just an excuse. He knew well that Kairi was happy on the islands, but he could never admit the real reason he wanted to leave.

To become strong—strong enough to protect the things that matter.

In the moment that Riku's eyes had wandered from the stranger to the door, the figure that stood nearby had vanished, leaving Riku alone in the cave that begged him into a state of childhood nostalgia. He gave one last long look at the door. If this world really was connected, and that door did lead to the outside world then…then… Riku's thoughts were halted as his eyes landed on one of the drawings in the cave.

The drawing was barely visible from behind more overgrown roots, Riku had never seen it before, but now that he had, his heart had stopped. A scratchy resemblance of Sora and Kairi had been etched into the rock, their smiling faces facing each other. Riku clenched his fists as liquid hurt crawled into the corners of his eyes. Sora and Kairi—Riku wanted to like it, but he couldn't help feeling like something was missing from that drawing. So, pressing his hardened fist to his chest, he made up his mind. Tonight, Riku would open that door, and using whatever darkness that was tying itself to this world, he would understand what it was he needed to learn.

It was a mystery as to how long Riku had been caught in his memories. Here in the Realm of Darkness, time was absent and experiencing that absence of time was very dull. With only thoughts and dreams to entertain you, Riku clenched his fists at the memories that had just visited him. Sora groaned at the sudden tight grip and stirred in his sleep, but Riku did not relax his hand at this. It was he who opened the door for his own selfish reasons. He wanted the three of them to be together, but all he did was tip the scales in a different direction.

Opening that door, thinking he'd jump the gun to the outside worlds—what a waste, he never even got to see what was beyond it. The moment he succeeded he blacked out. Now, he was treading the Dark Realm with no sense of direction or time. And thinking he and Sora may not be safe made him uneasy. Thinking about Kairi even more so made him bite his tongue.

"Riku, are you all right?"

Sora had awoken all groggy. He rubbed his eyes with a free hand and looked over at Riku whose whole body was clenched and shaking.

"I'm sorry to have brought you into this mess, Sora."

"Well, I'm fine. And I know nothing bad will happen to me…" He let out a long yawn, "…because you'll be here to protect me. And nothing bad will happen to you, because I'll be here to protect—yawn—you." Sora could always say such embarrassing things so casually—he was always like that, and knowing that it was something that wouldn't change allowed Riku to relax and ruffle Sora's already messy hair.

"I know you will. Did you sleep well, Sora?"

"Yeah! You know what's strange? As scary and dark as this place is, I didn't have any nightmares. I think it means… everything's going to be okay now!"

Sora's cheery attitude made the wrinkle's in Riku's forehead soften just a little. It was another thing he could count on and the fact that Sora had been exhausted and moody lately was beginning to make him worried.

The smooth of Riku's glove ran over the calloused tips of Sora's exposed fingers. Sora was a bit of an amateur carpenter, he'd made Riku's wooden practice sword when they were little; it was good and strong, and it had held up to the very day. He'd even made the row boats they used to ride to and from the Destiny Islands, but those were things he'd made years ago, the callouses on his skin now were reddened and raised. Riku turned Sora's hand over in his own and noticed small, fresh blisters on the sides of his fingers.

"Sora, have you been wood carving lately? Your hands look like they've been through it."

Sora muttered an embarrassed "oh," and readjusted his position so he was sitting straight up and no longer slouching from sleep. He blushed a little and searched the ground for something to say.

"I uh... I thought since the three of us were going to leave the island, I might as well make something special to commemorate the occasion, or something. Y'know since Kairi's always making those charms."

"You made something for the three of us?"

Sora never made anything for anyone else, even if he made dolls of his friends—which he'd only done once when he was little—he kept them for himself. The same with Kairi—she made all these charms but had never once offered one to Riku or Sora. The only thing that Sora made that had been for Riku specifically was the wooden sword which Riku cherished so dearly, and that wasn't even made for him—Riku had just taken it to have an advantage over him when they spared. The boat was not made for him either, but for Sora himself to share with Riku. When Kairi came around, one boat wasn't enough—and when they got older, just two wasn't enough. So, Sora had to make another one—for himself and again later, one more for himself.

"Well…not exactly. I made something for Kairi, but—"

Sora stopped midsentence, no doubt aching over the whereabouts of his dearly beloved. When he didn't continue, Riku ran his thumb over Sora's overturned hand. This seemed to bring him back up, if only a little bit. Sora reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a small wooden figure. It was smooth and perfect, unlike his other pieces which were often hacked into jagged 'close-enough's' that were made out of whatever wood he could find himself. But no, this one was an ashy gray—it was the color of destiny and Riku recognized it instantly.

"Sora, is that wood from the paopu tree?!"

"Yeah, I wanted it to be special. I thought if I made her something she'd make me one of those charms. Look!" Sora pulled out a chain from his pocket that was attached to his jumper. "I even have a place to hook it when we trade!"

Sora had brightened even more, but Riku's mood was falling as he soon realized the figure was indeed small doll that had a striking resemblance to Kairi. It was beautiful. An intricate design of a seven-pointed sun was carved into the body, which was shaped like a star—a star similar to that of the fruit that the paopu tree bore. It was a common legend that if two people share the fruit of the tree, their destinies will become intertwined and they will remain a part of each other's lives no matter what.

"I just… I wish I could've given it to her."

"Don't worry, Sora. We'll find her." Riku said with a gentle smile. He was disheartened, without a doubt, but he kept it concealed.

"I made one for you too, Riku."

"Huh? But you said you'd only made one for Kairi."

"Well, I mean, I made you one a looong time ago. I got it off that wooden ship in my room. I was hoping I could use it as a reference to make a new one, similar to Kairi's."

Riku's interest was piqued as he watched Sora pull another wooden doll from his pocket. This one was bigger than Kairi's and crudely cut. The wood was old and withered and might have been falling apart at this point. Sora put the small figure on the ground next to the replica of Kairi. It made a louder thunk when he placed it, it no doubt being heavier than the light wood of the paopu tree.

A calm expression was worn across the little replica of Riku. The hair was jagged and the face was of the most mediocre of shapes, but something welled up inside Riku when he saw it—the carving that Sora had made at least ten years ago…he'd kept it all this time.

"It looks exactly like me."

"Eh… I was gonna make another one later so I guess you can keep that one."

Riku smiled and paused for a bit before realizing something and asking, "Sora, where's yours?"

"Mine?"

"You didn't make one of yourself? You selfless brat!" Riku dropped a firm hand onto Sora's head.

"H-hey! It's not my fault! I just forgot is all."

"How do you forget yourself? Come on." Riku picked up the wooden dolls and pulled Sora to his feet and began dragging him down the shadowy path.

"Where're we going?"

It didn't take long for Riku to find what he was looking for—a tree. He stood with a hand on his hip, looking very pleased with himself as he wasn't entirely sure if this place had trees at all. In fact, he'd almost missed it. It could've been the lack of light, but the fault more likely lie in the color of the tree's bark. It was a very dark gray, almost black like the darkness surrounding it.

"Here."

"Here?"

"Sora, this is a tree."

"Yes. Yes it is."

"Sora, are trees made out of?"

"…Wood?"

"Yes. Yes they are."

"Riku, what exactly are you getting at?"

Riku held the doll replicas of himself and Kairi up for Sora to see.

"What are these, Sora?"

"I know what they are Riku, I made them."

Riku gently struck Sora atop the head, something he and Kairi were guilty of doing to Sora on the regular as, at times, their friend wasn't very bright.

"These are your friends, Sora. What are they missing?"

Sora let out an exaggerated groan. It was obvious Sora was tired of Riku beating around the bush and Riku couldn't help but notice this and stifle a laugh.

"Why not make a figurine of yourself?

"Riku." Sora continued his tone of exasperation. "I can't just make them. I'm not some machine that just pumps out figurines whenever someone wants." He rolled his eyes, playing the part of a tortured artist.

"But Sora, the dolls need their friend, Sora."

Riku shook his hand about to make the dolls move about, giving them voices as if they were talking to Sora. He made his voice lower than it necessarily had to be for his own doll.

"Where's Sora?" He made the Riku doll ask. His voice became extremely high pitched and girly for his voicing of the Kairi doll.

"I miss Sora!" He made it say in a way which did not elicit the chuckle of laughter he was hoping from Sora, but brought a pout to the boy's face instead.

"Sora! Sora? He must have left us!" The Riku doll yelled.

"Nooo!" screamed the Kairi doll dramatically before sniffling and sobbing out the words "he must not LOVE US."

Sora grabbed the dolls from Riku's hand then and shoved them back in his own pocket.

"Alright fine, fine! I'll make a doll of me, just don't…" Sora looked away from Riku to the ground. Although his face wasn't visible, a blush was apparent on his ears. Riku's heart nearly stopped before he realized Sora wasn't blushing from anger or hurt, but from trying to stifle an uncountable amount of laughter. "Just don't make those voices again!" Sora looked up with a huge grin on his face and his eyes full of tears from trying to hold himself back.

"Alright, okay. I get it." It was Riku's turn to blush as he scratched the back of his head in slight embarrassment. Riku was always playing games and tricks on Sora, but sometimes his own silliness got the better of him and his cool exterior broke into something that was closer to being the old friend Sora grew up with. Sora was laughing uncontrollably now and was almost in tears before he picked himself back up and turned his attention to the tree that was to become the subject of his next project.

"Well," Sora said. He turned to Riku, flashing his big blue eyes and silly grin up at him. "Better get started!"

But if there was one thing they had in this desolate darkness…

…it was time.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I'm hoping to update every Tuesday or Wednesday now that I've gotten a good rhythm down, but unlike Sora and Riku I can't totally keep a promise. Speaking of, originally this chapter had a lot more SoRiku moments, and while I dialed it down some parts were written to keenly into the chapter that I decided not to work them out. While this wasn't intended to be a ship fic there were / are definitely going to be moments because I personally think they're a fun fuel for readers. My ONLY hangups about making Sora and Riku so cozy earlier on is that you don't get that wonderful progression and growth of their relationship that you see in the games, but this isn't the games now, is it? By changing a single thing we're getting further and further away from canon.