KH belongs to Disney and SE.

True Love's Kiss

Riku never understood why Sora seemed to be infatuated with kisses of all things. He'd talk about them whenever he thought the audience wouldn't tease him too much, or he could deal with the teases - like when he was with Riku, who offered a fascinating example to both cases.
By no means was it the kind of kissing talks teenage girls and boys had amongst themselves or with each other, oh no. Ever the shy, inexperienced, innocent boy, Sora never was capable of bringing that variation of the topic up, even to his bestest of friends. So then Riku was obviously condemned to be subjected to some other form of torment, one only Sora could subject him to - if only because Sora was the only one Riku let talk about such nonsense and actually bothered listening to while he did.
Granted - it didn't mean he never regretted it.

"Say, Riku, do you believe in true love's kiss?"

The question came one sunny day off when their small group of friends wasted their time in quite the unfamiliar environment - the pool.
As most preferred the beach they more or less had the pool to themselves and used it as they saw fit. Their friends were currently in the middle of a rooster fight, with the girls sitting on Tidus and Wakka's shoulders. Sora and Riku used the chance to escape and grab some refreshments.

The brunet was suckling on his sea-salt popsicle idly when Riku was recovering from the spitshot that question caused. He wiped his chin and looked sadly at his emptier glass of juice before turning to glare at his so-called best friend.

"Come again?" He huffed, wishing he heard wrong. Of course, Riku never had so much luck with those things. Ever.

"True love's kiss." Sora repeated, his lips curling into a feline grin. "Ya know, like in the fairy tales and a couple of the Princesses? When a miracle happens because you kissed-"
Riku noted idly how Sora's lips seemed to pout whenever he said the word.
"Your one true love."

The silveret was silent for a long moment in which he stared blankly back at Sora's quizzical look. The brunet on his part suckled happily on his popsicle. Finally Riku looked straight into Sora's eyes and slowly quirked his brows.

"I feel like I'll regret this, but what brought this about?"

"Just wondering." Sora replied and licked some ice cream from his cheek. "Thought about random stuff yesterday, and this was one of the things I was curious about. Since you got to meet some of them, too, I was wondering what your take on it was."

"That so." Riku growled softly and slurped the reminders of his juice through the colorful straw.
For a moment Sora looked at Riku before frowning.

"You dodged the question!"

"No, Sora, I kept quiet. I can do that, too." Riku laughed and shook his head. "You said it yourself, didn't you? I met them. Hard to say I don't believe something I know exists."

Sora's lips pursed in that odd way Riku was familiar with, showing he was displeased but fought his hardest to hide it.

"Well, you're no fun."

"You just wanted to get on my case about it like you did about Santa."

He was lucky enough to notice that guilty twitch at the corner of Sora's lip before the boy looked away.

"Maaaaybeeeeeee." He purred in a sing-along tone, the popsicle's stick shifting between his lips.

"Oh, you."

Their debate was cut short when their friends called out to them, wanting to go get lunch. The two exchanged looks before Riku leaned back in his plastic chair, the straw held between his teeth now that he finished his drink.

"Go, I'll look after our stuff. You know what I definitely won't eat so pick whatever works."

Sora stared at Riku for a moment, taking in his pose with his hands behind his head and crossed legs. He had a nagging suspicion the other was still looking back at him from behind the curtain of silver strands, but couldn't be certain. Seeing no further reason to stall, then, Sora pushed himself up and went to join his friends, leaving Riku behind.

It wasn't until the group as a whole rounded that corner that Riku let out a frustratedly relieved sigh and pulled the straw out of his mouth with his index and middle fingers. He held it up and stared at it idly from behind a thoughtful frown.

"True love's kiss, huh..." He muttered and reached to rest his hand over his eyes.

Really... leave it to Sora to spew the most frustrating, flustering things possible.

It was times like that when Riku had to wonder why he and Sora had such talks. He knew Sora never talked about that sort of thing with anyone else and Riku himself didn't put up with it from anyone, else. But why talk about it at all? What made the brunet bring that topic of all others up?
If it was puberty, there were many other topics to cover. If it was romance, there were many other more realistic issues to discuss. And if it was just for teasing, well... Riku hoped it wasn't anything of that sort, if only because of how he found himself reacting to those questions.

For instance, before Sora began having these conversations with him, Riku was certain he had no idea what precise hue Sora's lips were when suckling on them pale-blue popsicles, nor how his lips curled around the treat.
He was quiet sure he didn't notice how Sora kept licking his lips always from left to right without fail, or that there was this patch of tongue which was just a tad paler than the rest.

But then came the conversations and the questions, and Riku became aware of all those things and then some, and he had to wonder if Sora was doing it on purpose, or... nah, couldn't be; not even Sora was that naive... right?
Then again, this was Sora, and Riku hated to over-think things.

"...buh, humbug." Riku growled and pushed himself up, deciding to take a walk around the pool. He could still keep their things in sight, but walk off some of the frustration.
Win-win, right?
Right. Now, if only he could get those nasty thoughts out of his head. Things were so much easier between Sora and he before they came back home... or was it before they hit that delicate age?
Ugh; someone get the Darkness to swallow him up again...

A sigh left him as he came to a stop by the pool's edge and stared into the Chloride filled water. Of course, now that he was alone, he could properly entertain that thought - what if Sora was doing it on purpose? What if he was trying to get a point across and it wasn't all just in Riku's head? Over-thinking things also meant he thought he was doing that...

"I think I caught a heat-stroke." Riku muttered finally and pinched the bridge of his nose. Bleh, he should just ask Sora about it directly, he concluded and turned to head back under the parasol, all the while forgetting one very important fact that didn't apply to beaches -
Pool-sides tended to be wet and slippery; not the best place to be at if your mind was straying.
It took Riku a split second longer than usual to realize he lost his footing, but it was that lost instance that stood between him blocking his fall and having the pavement do it for him.

–

There were voices. A mesh of familiar sounds that formed... words, was it? Surrounded him, dragged his consciousness back from the pleasant void if drifted away to. It all suddenly became clearer, realer, and along with it came the real presence of pressure over his chest. He felt it once, twice, and then came a warmth he wasn't quite familiar with which tried to add onto the pressure.
The procedure repeated itself several times until the pressure started boiling from the inside - and wanted out.

Sora's eyes widened as he felt Riku cough water into his mouth and he pulled away immediately as the other's expression twisted into a pained one. Seeing this development, the brunet pulled away and let Wakka press down on Riku's chest again, forcing the rest of the water out of his lungs.
The poor teen coughed and hacked and continued doing so even when he was pulled up and hit on the back.
At long last he managed to breathe again and let himself look around. He found all his friends there around him, staring at him with emotions ranging from worriedly to tearfully.
He rubbed the lower half of his face, not responding when the brown haired girl covered his shoulders with a towel.
Ah, he... almost drowned, didn't he, he realized between one grateful breath of air and another.
That realization bounced about in his mind even when most of his friends left, be it to get someone to have a look at him, or to beat the absent life-guard up.
There was one person left behind though, and he kept sitting next to his best friend.

"Guess we're lucky none of us had munny on us so we had to come back, huh..." Sora snickered awkwardly while Riku ran a hand over his sore chest. Sora in response scratched the back of his neck.
"Wakka... panicked a bit, I guess. Is it broken?"

"I'll live." Riku replied absently before glancing at Sora. For someone who was away, he was certainly soaked... well, at least Riku had an idea of one person who fished him out before it was too late.
"So... if Wakka man-handled me, who did the mouth-to-mouth?"

Ah, now he knew he was beyond hope, if in his sad state he could still let himself notice how Sora pursed his lips, only to slide his tongue between them.

"Guilty as charged." Sora admitted with a small smile.
Riku nodded in return before looking up at the sky. It was clear with only a couple of fluffy, white clouds traveling across it.

So Sora did it, huh... Riku found himself snorting as he reached to towel his hair.
"True love's kiss, huh?"

It was mostly intended as a tease, but the smile Sora initially offered back was flattered and happy. Riku's eyes widened at the expression he managed to see right before it changed into a teasing grin.
Ah; so it wasn't all just in his head...

"I thought you were supposed to not be as much of a sap as me?" Sora asked, a playful glint in his eyes.

Riku, on the other hand, found himself offering a lopsided grin, albeit one that had a touch of warmth to it.
"Crank it up to a near-death experience."

Sora nodded and helped Riku up.

"Yeah... must be that."