Title: Miniature

Genre: Romance, angst.

Rating: T(een).

Summary: Because sometimes, all it takes is a little sand, a little heat, and a whole lot of heart. In which Sora grows, Riku adjusts, and Tidus becomes a problem. SoraxRiku.

Miniature

There was sand everywhere.

Sora shivered as he stepped into the shower, the cool water rushing over his heated skin, rinsing off the gritty sand from his body. It was unreal how tired he was. He had spent all day out at the beach with Riku, Tidus, Selphie, and Kairi enjoying the sun and having what was supposed to be a "relax day".

And they had relaxed. Sora couldn't say that he missed roaming the worlds and fighting big baddies that much at the moment. He was content with the Destiny Islands—it was peaceful, the people were happy, there were no heartless, and most of all, the people he had fought so hard to protect were safe there.

That made him happy.

He released a hot puff of air as he leaned his back against the cool wall of the shower, letting the water drench him. He slowly reached out and grabbed the bottle of shampoo off the sill near his head. His mind wandered back to when he was young and had to struggle to reach up to the sill and grab the shampoo. Now, he stood taller than the sill. It made him feel strong.

He snorted in humorless laughter to himself. He had saved the worlds twice now, yet being tall enough to reach the shampoo on the windowsill of the shower was what made him feel strong. The irony was almost funny. Almost.

He shook his head, ridding it of the thoughts flooding his head, the thoughts that reminded him of all the hurt the worlds had gone through—all the hurt that the people had gone through. His journeys had changed him, made him more down-to-earth, more aware of the pain in the world around him; the pain, and the darkness.

He was still Sora, though. Cheerful, bubbly, optimistic, determined. He smiled to himself. He liked being Sora.

Absently grabbing the soap, he scrubbed his body clean of sand and heat and salt. He scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed—because, while he was still Sora, he knew the darkness had gotten to him along the way, and he was determined to scrub it off him, even if it made his skin raw.

Lately, Sora had been noticing more things.

Things like: how Kairi's hair would fall in her eyes when she would bend her head down to focus on her homework a little more, or how Selphie always seemed to smell like apple pie—and he loved apple pie—or, or, or how Tidus always seemed to have his eyes watching Riku.

That last one was the one he noticed the most.

When Riku and Sora had returned to the Islands, everyone had been ecstatic. Riku and Sora had been, as well. Reunions had taken place, and then they were back in school—eleventh grade for Sora and Kairi and Tidus and Selphie and Wakka, and twelfth for Riku.

Now, Sora didn't deny that Riku had changed during their journeys—emotionally, yeah, but physically, too. He was taller now. His silver hair fell past his shoulders in a cascade of shiny cleanliness. His shoulders were broader, his chin always held high. His arms, back, stomach, chest, legs, everything was toned in what girls seemed to think was just right. His eyes glowed brightly like burning pools of aqua water. The biggest change, though, was his smile.

His smile was beautiful. It always had been. Whenever he smiled at a girl during school, those girls were goo-goo eyed the rest of the day. It was white, wide, and only slightly sad—but Sora was pretty sure that only he, and maybe Kairi, could see the hint of sadness in his smiles.

Anyway, so Sora began to notice how Tidus seemed to notice Riku who seemed not to notice that Tidus was noticing him or that Sora was noticing Tidus notice him. When Sora noticed Tidus noticing Riku, Sora felt something akin to unhappiness settle in the pit of his stomach. Sora found it odd, too, because he would notice Tidus noticing Kairi and Selphie, but when Sora noticed Tidus noticing them, that unhappy feeling never settled in the pit of his stomach like when he noticed Tidus noticing Riku.

Sora tried to tell himself that the unhappy feeling he got from noticing Tidus noticing Riku was because, and only because, Sora had searched the universe for Riku, and in Sora's mind, Riku was only his to notice.

But why was he noticing Riku in the first place? Why did he care?

The first time Sora and Riku sparred since coming back from their journeys had made Sora feel extremely hot.

The sun, Sora told himself, was just too hot. That's all.

But when Riku closed in on him—shirtless, toned, slightly tanned, confident Riku—Sora began to doubt that it was the sun that was too hot.

He spun and ducked, avoiding a blow to his neck from Riku's keyblade. Sora blew sticky, mocha locks out of his cerulean orbs and struck at Riku's ankles, but Riku was quick, and leapt over the offensive blade, whirling his own down toward where Sora was crouched.

Sora sprang up, blocking Riku's attack and pushing his opponent backward with the force of his block. With a triumphant smile, Sora leapt toward Riku at his time of unbalance and swept his keyblade toward Riku's side.

Somehow, Riku regained his footing, ducked, and then tripped on Sora's keyblade as Sora swept it back to try to hit a knee or thigh. Riku went toppling face first into sand, his silver hair flopping into his eyes and sticking to his glistening neck.

Sora froze, watching as Riku spat out gritty sand and raised his eyes to look at Sora.

When Sora's eyes met Riku's heated gaze, he felt his body warm up, tingling with something that made Sora find Riku's disheveled appearance very, very attractive—honestly, he told himself, who wouldn't find a shirtless Riku attractive, anyway? It was normal, he told himself. Normal, normal, normal, definitely normal.

But it was Riku's voice that was Sora's undoing.

"Looks like you win, So-ra."

Sora swallowed. Riku only spoke his name like that when he was teasing him. A thirsty tongue flicked over dry lips, and Sora decided that Tidus had better stop noticing Riku because Sora didn't know what he would do if Riku ever spoke Tidus' name like that, or looked at Tidus like that.

Normal, Sora told himself. Normal—Riku was his best friend, after all—and it was totally normal to find your best friend attractive.

Sora finally admitted to himself that he had the tiniest crush on Riku when Riku gave him his birthday present.

Riku had come over to Sora's house to spend the night in celebration. He was turning seventeen! Sora didn't remember being so excited to get older. Maybe it was because the last two years he had missed his birthdays and hadn't gotten to celebrate them, but this one—this one, he was able to celebrate.

He blew out seventeen blue candles that were dripping wax onto the homemade chocolate cake his mother had made him, and cut a few slices for his mother, Riku, and himself. Kairi had given him his present earlier—a necklace made of delicate, gleaming shells she had found on the beach. She said it would keep him safe. Sora remembered her making a similar necklace when she, Sora, and Riku were collecting parts for their raft when they had so foolishly thought they could jump on a raft with a few mushrooms and an egg and survive to make it to another world. He had smiled at her, given her a hug, and thanked her. She had kissed him on the cheek and wished him happy birthday, and gone home. She couldn't spend the night. She was a girl.

Riku and Sora ate their cake in Sora's room, chitchatting through full mouths and cheeky smiles. It had been a while since they had hung out like this. Sora felt his heart glow. He missed Riku.

After cake, Riku had smiled at Sora—it was beautiful, as always, but this one had more sadness in it than his normal ones—and told Sora that it was time Riku gave him his present.

Sora was excited. He loved gifts! He grinned, setting his plate aside, and agreed. Riku rolled his eyes at Sora's eagerness to get a present, but he smiled nonetheless.

Riku reached into his pocket and pulled out something small, about the size of a quarter, and yellow. It was shaped like a star and shone in the yellow light of Sora's bedroom. It was a miniature, glass replica of a paopu fruit. Sora swallowed, feeling a little nervous as Riku pressed the cold sculpture into the palm of his rough, tanned hand.

And then, Riku spoke, and Sora thought he would cry.

"Happy birthday, Sora." It was quiet, his gaze never leaving the item in Sora's hand. "I figured—I figured that since you went and risked your life to find me"—a very sad smile—"I may as well give you mine in return, so this little paopu fruit is to symbolize that"—a slight frown—"Thank you. You're my best friend, and I'm not going to leave you ever again."—a light squeeze to Sora's curled hand.

Sora swallowed back tears. For the billionth time, he damned Ansem and Xemnas and whoever else deserved to be damned because of what Riku—what they all—had gone through. For a moment, his vision fogged over, and he felt as if he weren't in his body; Roxas was peeking through, trying to see what was going on. A sadness welled in Sora's heart as an image of a redheaded fireball of a man flashed behind his lids; one of Roxas' memories, one of Axel.

When Sora embraced Riku in a tight hug and realized that he could fall asleep in the boy's arms, he concluded that Riku was to him what Axel had been to Roxas: something undefined, but something that was much more and much closer than just a best friend.

Sora admitted that he might just be in love with Riku when Riku knocked on his window in the middle of the night during one of the nastiest storms Sora remembered since the Islands were overcome by darkness.

Sora opened his window, letting in the howling wind and the cold rain in order to let in a shivering, drenched Riku. He didn't ask any questions, and Riku didn't provide any answers as he entered. All Sora did was scowl slightly, grab a blanket, and wrap his best friend in the soft material.

"Thank you." Was all he received in return. Sora only nodded before rubbing his tired eyes with his tanned hands.

After many tense moments of silence, Sora had climbed back in bed and lay on his side to face Riku, who was sitting against Sora's wall wrapped in the blanket Sora had provided. Honestly, Sora was confused, but he knew that when Riku wanted to talk, Riku would talk, but if Riku didn't want to talk, then Riku wouldn't talk, so no matter what Sora did, he would just have to wait for Riku to decide that he either wanted or didn't want to talk.

Fortunately, to ease Sora's confusion, Riku did happen to want to talk.

"I thought maybe it was the darkness again."

That's all Riku had to say for Sora to understand: the storm. When the darkness had come, Sora had thought it was just a storm, as well, until he entered the domain of purple and black skies and impending doom—that was when he knew it wasn't just a storm.

"Riku." Sora spoke, slipping out of his bed and ignoring a clap of thunder overhead. He slid next to Riku and wrapped an arm around his best friend's shoulders, nuzzling Riku's shoulder affectionately like a cat. "You don't have anything to worry about."

Riku nodded, barely, and swallowed. Sora blindly reached out in the darkness toward his shelves, grabbing at the cold, pointed object he had placed there. He fingered the mini yellow paopu figure shortly before placing it in Riku's hand.

Riku furrowed his brows, turning his head toward Sora's slowly, a question hanging in the air. Sora smiled a very Sora-like smile before squeezing Riku with the arm around his shoulders. "I just want you to know that I'd still risk my life to bring you home, if you were to leave again." Sora's words were so soft, he wasn't sure if he was actually speaking. "I know that the figurine you gave me for my birthday was a gift to me, but I think that it should be a gift for us to share; a token to remind us that, when we're scared or in trouble, we'll always have each other."

Sora was blushing, but it was okay. Riku smiled through the darkness, closing his fingers over the miniature paopu. Sora laid his head on Riku's shoulder, closing his eyes and listening to his friend's heartbeat, and that was when he realized:

Sometimes the biggest things come in the smallest packages—just like how the love and care that the two felt for one another through everything they had endured could be expressed by one glass, miniature figurine.

Okay. So I took a slightly more... I'm not even quite sure how to describe it. Normally my work is very light and humorous and fluffy, but I felt like writing something a little more serious. I was going to add an actual romance scene (kissing, fooling around, all that good stuff), but I felt like it would take away from the meaning of the work as a whole, so I left it out and to the reader's imagination. Also, the lack of a lot of dialogue is purposeful; that would also take away from the whole Sora-insight-meaning-thing. I decided to write the story as an insight into Sora's mind and his development because, honestly, we all know the kid went through a lot in his days and I think that it deserves to be looked into, lol.

My favorite part of this whole story is writing about how Sora noticed Tidus noticing Riku who didn't notice Sora noticing Tidus notice him. GREAT. :)

Well, I hope you enjoyed! Leave a review if you please!

-Shoe-