Author Note

InfernalFox: *Gets the popcorn and jumps into the sofa* Hello. Welcome back to the madness

Me: Glad you are enjoying my suffering

InfernalFox: Writers and Readers are both known for their sadistic streak

Me: You said it girl, we all love to see our favorite characters tortured for some reason.

InfernalFox: One minute of silence for the poor characters for what we put them through, and another one for the creators for how we violate their creations. *bows head in respect and suddenly takes out a remote out of nowhere* okay, fluffy stuff is over! Readers want drama now! Let's give it to them!

Chapter 6

Sora felt the sting before he saw the red, gooey mess on his knee. His first instinct was to wipe away all the dirt and gravel from the wound, but aggravating it only made it burn horribly. Wincing, the boy slowly got up, letting gravity make the blood trickle down to his calves. He turned to the older man only a few yards away who was observing him with a frown.

"You needed to be faster there" the observer said plainly.

"Yeah" Sora mumbled. He felt a sinking feeling in his chest.

It had been a week since Xehanort had decided to train Sora with the power of darkness. The trainee had turned out to not be as naturally talented in the magic as the older man had lead him to be. The week had been spent learning a very simple move: summon a small ball of darkness and cast it towards a target. It was the most basic of moves that he could learn yet Sora had spent the entire week messing up.

"Sorry Xehanort" Sora apologized. He tried not to mentally beat himself over every mistake but it was hard when he knew he should be able to do something so simple. He was one of the keyblade's chosen yet he couldn't make a little ball.

"It's alright Sora" Xehanort smiled "You'll get it eventually, just try again".

The boy looked down at his scraped knee. "I think I should head home now".

Xehanort's smile disappeared "We've barely done anything. Come on Sora, magic takes a lot of hard and endurance. You want to be able wield darkness don't you?"

Sora nodded.

"Then you need to toughen up" he said.

Sora sighed. His knee was throbbing and his eyelids were getting heavy. By now everyone at home was probably finishing dinner. They won't be worried since he told Yuffie he'd be eating out tonight, but he still wished he was with them.

But Sora couldn't quit. There was too much on the line to just throw in the towel. He had to toughen up like Xehanort said. He just needed to remind himself that being able to use magic would be worth it. He gave Xehanort a curt nod to signal that he was ready to keep going.

The older man then conjured a baseball sized orb of his own darkness. "Maybe we need to approach this differently. Can we try a new exercise?"

"Yeah, sure" Sora silently thanked Xehanort. He was tired of the summoning practice. It was clear that he was getting nowhere.

"Now don't be alarmed" the older man started "But I want you to dodge my attacks".

Sora, in turn, was very alarmed. "W-what?" he stuttered.

"I want to try something" he explained "Sometimes beginners have a tough time getting their magic out because there is no need for it to come out. Maybe if you are being attacked your inner magic will reveal itself to protect you".

Sora stared at his friend, waiting for him to tell him that he was joking. Xehanort wouldn't really attack him, would he? He was his friend. He shouldn't even think of harming him.

Yet Xehanort stood in a battle-ready position, waiting for Sora to give him the go ahead.

"You won't really hurt me, right?" Sora asked.

"Not if you dodge" he said without a hint of sympathy.

Sora gulped but decided to comply. Xehanort was just trying to help. He repeated that over and over in his head. He needed to stop being such a scaredy cat and do as he was told.

For his sake and Riku's.

And when Sora really thought about it, this wasn't any different than playing sword fighting with Riku. Even if this version was a little more dangerous.

"Alright" Sora crouched down, ready to roll away at a moment's notice "Give me your worse!"

The house was silent when Sora got home. The rooms were empty and the lights were turned off. The battered boy crept in slowly, closing the door behind him. Of course, now that there was peace in the house, every little creak sounded four times louder than it would during the day. Every footstep produced a squeak that echoed throughout the house. Sora mentally begged the floor boards to shut up.

Luckily he managed to get to the bathroom in the kitchen without waking anyone up. He flipped on the lights and immediately collapsed on the ground. His whole body was sore and all his scrapes stung like hell.

After an hour of rolling away from Xehanort's violent attacks, the boy had felt a strange urge inside him. An urge to lash out on his attacker. To protect himself at all costs. And before he knew it, a ball of darkness had flung in Xehanort's direction.

It took awhile for Sora to realize that it came from him.

He immediately apologized, swearing he didn't do it on purpose, but for some reason the older man wasn't upset at all. In fact, he was very pleased.

That's when things took a turn for the worse. Xehanort was determined to get that magic out of Sora again. So much so that the small exercise turned very intense. The man became rougher with his attacks and Sora, after awhile of the harder regimen, couldn't kept up anymore. His dodges became sloppier and some of the orbs hit their target, causing the boy to be flung onto the ground.

Sora wasn't able to release any more magic that night, he was only able to be covered in nicks and scratches. Xehanort, despite being determined to teach him, had finally let Sora go home.

The said boy was now fumbling around in the cabinets under the sink, looking for bandages. He hurt but there was still a smile on his face.

He had used magic today!

Sure it wasn't on purpose or for very long, but he didn't care. He had done something he had always dreamed of doing. No amount of bruises took away from the fact that he was living out a childhood fantasy.

"What the-?"

Sora jumped, nearly hitting his head on roof of the cabinet, and swung around. Standing at the entrance, draped in his sleepwear, was none other than Riku. His emerald eyes were wide in shock as he looked up and down his best friend's body.

"I uh…" Sora mumbled. A guilty feeling washed over him. It felt like he had been caught in some heinous lie or some sort of betrayal. He didn't know how to give a proper explanation without somehow selling out Xehanort. So instead he just stared back, mouth gaping like a fish.

"What happened?" Riku kneeled beside his friend.

"I… fell" Sora was never the best at lying.

"From where? And how high?" The silver-haired teen grabbed Sora's wrist and pulled up his sleeve.

"Ah Riku!" Sora cried out in pain and tried to yank his arm away but Riku's grip only tighten.

"You are covered in bruises!" his friend exclaimed.

"I was... being reckless. Yeah, I was running along this edge and I accidently fell. It wasn't that big of a fall but I certainly got pretty beat up" Sora added a nervous chuckle. He decided that his story was pretty convincing. He was always the more energetic of the two boys. Riku would believe that he was running in the streets like a madman.

Riku finally let go of his arm "Why were you running around this late?" he asked sounding exasperated.

"Didn't Yuffie tell you? I ate out tonight".

"I know but why?"

Sora didn't know how to answer that. "I don't know, Riku, I just felt like eating out" it wasn't until they left his mouth did Sora realize how defensive those words sounded. But he couldn't help but to feel a bit agitated. He was hungry, exhausted, and in pain. The last thing he wanted was to be hounded like this. The beaten up boy then returned to his search for band aids, praying that Riku would either help him get patched up or just go away.

"By yourself?" Riku asked while getting the disinfectant out. Sora managed to find some bandages and sat himself on the floor.

"Yeah, I just wanted to be alone" Sora explained. Without words, Riku poured the disinfectant on a cloth and began to clean out his scraped knee. It was funny how this had become a routine. After years of roughhousing, wrestling, and sword fighting, the boys were used to patching each other up. In some strange way, this process was nostalgic to Sora.

"You've been getting a lot of alone time lately" Riku pointed out "You're hardly home anymore".

Sora almost blurted out 'how do you know if you spend all day in your room?' but decided that now wasn't a good time to argue. Xehanort, though not on purpose, had taught him to watch what he said.

"Not really" Sora retaliated "You know me Riku, I can never stay inside for too long". The boy then shined his signature grin. He hoped if he acted like his usual aloof self Riku would stop being suspicious.

"I mean sure, I just don't understand what you go out to do" Riku said "There's nothing to do here and with no one to do it with"

"I find a way to goof around" Sora started to patch up his now clean wounds.

The bathroom finally fell into silence. Riku went to the kitchen to grab a couple of ice packs for Sora's bruises and then sat back down on the tiled floor, watching as Sora held the cold compressentants to his arms.

"How come you are even up Riku?" Sora asked while yawning.

The silver haired boy shifted, avoiding looking at Sora. "Just had trouble sleeping" Riku replied.

Now the situation was reverse. It was Sora turn to be suspicious of his best friend. "Is it the nightmares again?" he asked bluntly.

Riku response was an irritated 'tsk'. "No it's not...ugh Sora I shouldn't have told you that. That's not even a problem anymore. I just got spooked by a couple of nightmares and made a big deal out of nothing. I really am just having trouble falling asleep".

Sora was about to press the issue further but his stomach suddenly cried out for the dinner it missed. He instantly panicked, his heartbeat seemingly increasing and his body tensing up. This was proof that he lied about eating out. He had been caught.

But instead of yelling, Sora heard a bright laugh.

"You have such a huge appetite for someone so tiny" Riku laughed.

"I'm not tiny" the boy defended while slowly calming down "You're just freakishly huge!"

"Yeah, yeah whatever shortie" Riku teased "I was just about to have a midnight snack too". The teen got up off the floor and offered his injured friend a hand. Sora graciously took it and was careful to stand back up.

The two of them went to the kitchen to relieve their hunger. They joked while they cooked, teasing one another about trivial things, and constantly shushing one another when things got too loud. From an outsider's perspective, it would seem like the two had returned to their old ways. There they were talking about the dumbest things without a care in the world. But no matter how much the two boys joked, there was a nagging questions in the back of both their minds.

Why would my best friend lie to me?

A/N: So this came out at a reasonable time right?...Right?...Yeah I'm right. Review por favor I need attention.