Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Squaresoft and Disney.
Summary: Riku tells of how Sora and him became friends. One-Shot.
A/N: Dedicated to my best friend Ash. Who always makes good food.
His name was Sora
Destiny Islands.
If you look it up in those little vacation idea books you can pick up in the drug store, it'll tell you that Destiny Island is the smallest island in the Camin sea. It will also tell you about all the little unique shops, the small restaurants that look over the sea, and the family-owned bookstore.
Then it will proceed to tell you about all the legends that Destiny Island has. The most famous on the island would be the legend of the paopu fruit. They say that if you share the fruit with someone, both of you're destinies will become intertwined forever.
Yeah, I know it's silly. But hey! I didn't come up with it.
There's another legend that is more popular around the younger kids. It's called the Eautou legend.
You see, there's a thing called a eautou shell. The shell is naturally a small, round, flat white shell that's about as thick as a piece of cardboard.
It's told that if you find a Eautou shell and you break it in half you'll set a dove free. Then the dove will be so grateful that you set it free that it will give you a present.
Well, I had found a eautou shell while I was out playing with Tidus along the shore of the kids island. I remember picking it up and being so excited that I had actually found a eautou shell. I quickly brushed the wet sand off the surface and grinned as the bright white shell gleamed up at me.
Quickly I broke it in half. I closed my eyes tightly and waited for some kind of miracle to happen, like a bright dove coming out from the shell or maybe the sky opening up and dousing me in white light!
But I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
But nothing happened.
I opened my eyes and looked down to see nothing special. Just the two broken halves of the shell laying lifelessly in my hands.
My silver brows furrowed.
Was this thing broken or something?
"Riku!"
Where was the dove?
"Hey, Riku!"
I glared down at the little halves with disgust.
"Hellooooooooooooooooooo, Riku!"
It wasn't true, it was just a load of crap!
"Earth to Riku! We need you to come back from where ever you are so we can play!"
I blinked as a tan hand waved it's self in front of my face. I looked up into the smiling face of Tidus.
"Wha?"
"Come on we need you to pla- Oh hey! Is that a eautou shell? I remember when I used to believe that whole story about the dove and stuff. Pretty stupid right?" Tidus laughed as he slapped me on the back.
I must have been staring at him with a weird look on my face because soon his smile vanished and was replaced with a worried expression. "Yo Riku, you okay?"
I looked back down at the pieces of the shell and with a grunt and a glare I tossed them out to the ocean to let the waves take care of them.
Beaming at Tidus I started sprinting off towards the docks where Wakka and Selphie probably were, yelling over my shoulder "Bet I can beat you to the docks!"
It never once occurred to me while I was racing Tidus, that maybe presents didn't always come right away.
XxXxXxX
I was sitting in the principal's office on Sora's first day of school here.
Don't ask why. Because then I'd have to go into a long story about how Mr. Jacobson our gym teacher's office got filled with shaving cream.
The office door opened slowly, and a small woman with dark brown hair pulled back into a messy bun meekly stepped in, her equally dark brown eyes darting every which way as if she was expecting something to attack her. The woman's clothes were clean but frayed.
I tilted my head as I watched her enter, she had something attached to her hand. It was a tiny tan hand that clung to the woman's like a vice grip. That something tuned into someone as the woman pulled a small boy into the office.
The kid looked young.
Probably about a year younger than me so he must have been seven or six. He wore a t-shirt that was faded from too many washings and a pair of cargo pants that were so big they looked like they could of swallowed him up.
His hair was crazy. It was a dark cinnamon brown. Also it was unevenly cut, probably not done by any professional or something because it stood up in all different directions and his bangs hung in his face. Peering through the wisps of uneven brown hair, the boys bright blue eyes darted around just as nervously as his mothers. In his other hand he tightly clutched a small paper bag, which obviously contained his lunch.
The woman and her son stood in the middle of the office silently and awkwardly.
It took about six minutes and the boy's mother to clear her throat before, Mrs.Tokes, the principal's secretary, looked up and glared at them through her thick black cat eyed framed glasses.
"And how might I help you?"
The woman let out a small breath, almost like she had been holing it, and glanced down at her son. to enroll my son…in school." She said hesitantly.
Mrs. Tokes rolled her eyes, opened a desk drawer, selected a printed form, pushed it and a pencil across her desk, and said somewhat brusquely " Fill this out. You may sit at the table by the window."
With obvious self-consciousness, the woman took the paper and pencil and moved quickly to the table. The boy followed her and stood very quietly at her side as she sat down and began to write on the paper.
As she wrote I watched the boy.
For awhile he bite at his already bitten into the quick nails. When he grew tired of that he chewed his bottom lip softly and watched his toes.
Someone really needed to get this kid a chew toy.
It was when he decided to look around the room that I got caught watching.
It was kind of funny to watch his eyes widen, then see a bright scarlet strip spread across his face. Quickly he averted his gaze to the poster on the wall that had a dancing milk carton on it, singing 'DRINK MILK! IT'LL GIVE YOU STONG BONES!'.
He avoided looking at me then.
When his mother finished, she took a card from her worn, fabric purse and handed it, with the paper, to Mrs. Tokes. Mrs. Tokes hastily glanced over the form and frowned as she looked at the boy's report card.
I raised an eyebrow as I watched the woman grab her son's hand tightly. In a low, tremulous voice, the woman said, "Last semester was difficult for Sora. His….father…died suddenly." Her voice trailed off in a barely audible whisper.
Ow.
Suddenly uncomfortable, Mrs. Tokes stood and with all of the uncharacteristic kindness she could muster said, "I'm very sorry. You may leave Sora here. An Aide will take him to his class."
Looking at the paper Sora's mom had given her, she added, "Bus number three is assigned to your neighborhood. The teacher on bus duty this week helps all new students find their bus. Sora will be alright."
His mother nodded slowly, leaned down and kissed Sora on the forehead softly, and she gave his little hand a soft squeeze. For a moment her eyes seemed to swell with tears. She tenderly brushed back his bangs from his eyes then stood up. His wide blue eyes followed her as she walked to the door and quietly shut the door behind her.
"Riku! In my office now!"
I sighed and stood up lazily. I glanced in Sora direction. He was watching me, I could see him mouth my name, trying it out. Smiling an award winning smile I waved at him and shouted, "Wish me luck!" before I waltzed into the principals office, the door slamming behind me.
XxXxXxX
I was back in class with a detention slip in my back pocket when an aide brought Sora into our room. Mrs. Miller, a warm and happy woman, was our writing skills teacher. She spoke briefly with the aide, and then she stood beside Sora and announced, "Class, let me have your attention. We have a new student who will be part of our class. Everyone this is Sora." She placed her hands on his scrawny shoulders and gave him a reassuring squeeze. "Now, yes Sora might be a bit young. But he is very gifted in writing which is why they moved him to this class."
Sora's face was starting to turn a very bright shade of pink from the praise.
Tidus leaned over towards me and whispered, "Great, a little pansy that can write."
I couldn't help but snicker.
Mrs. Miller assigned Sora to an empty desk in the third row, right across from Terrance Akin. She opened the supply closet and selected a spiral notebook, two pencils, and a copy of the handbook we were using in class, and then gave them to Sora.
Now, I would have just dismissed Sora and gone back to my doodling if it hadn't been for where he was sitting. He was sitting right next to Terrance. Terrance was the tallest boy in our class and was well built for his age. He was the biggest bully and was often in trouble for harassing the younger boys and making a general nuisance of himself. He liked all kinds of sports and told everybody he was going to be a professional blitzball player one day.
I really hated him. Plus no one was better at Blitzball then Wakka.
Terrance turned sideways in his desk chair an glowered at Sora. He curled his lips upward in a disdainful smirk, sizing up Sora's small, bony, almost frail body.
"What kind of sports do you play, Sora?" Terrance asked, as he leaned closer to the new boy. In a loud whisper for all those around him to hear, he said, "I'll bet you're good at hopscotch!" He laughed under his breath, and some of the other students sitting nearby began to giggle.
Sora did not acknowledge Terrance's insult. Concentrating on the handbook Mrs. Miller had given him, he pretended to ignore Terrance, though his face began to turn crimson with embarrassment and rage.
"What's wrong? Can't you talk?" Terrance sneered. I gritted my teeth and pressed my pencil harder against the paper. What the heck was his problem? Terrance looked around at the students nearby who seemed to be enjoying his antics and said , "Whaddaya know! I don't think the new kid can talk!"
About this time, Mrs. Miller glanced in Sora's direction. She saw that a disturbance of some sort was going on. With Terrance's reputation she quickly got up from her seat and slowly started to make her way towards the row where Sora and Terrance were seated.
Terrance quickly pretended to be working on his project, and the other students who had been his audience did likewise.
When class was over, Mrs. Miller called me over before I left. "Riku, take care of Sora, alright? He needs at least one person. And if there are any problems, please let me know."
XxXxXxX
I quickly caught up with Sora after school, right before he was about to walk out the door.
"Sora!"
He froze up, as if he thought that maybe he hadn't really heard someone call his name.
"Sora!"
Slowly he turned his head to look over his shoulder, and looked around. His deep blue eyes finally settling on me.
I waved my arm at him as I ran towards him, stumbling over my own two feet just to reach him. I must have looked crazy because he looked almost scared. Finally catching up to him, I bent forward resting my hands on my knees, having to catch my breath.
"Wow." I breathed. "Your pretty fast you know?"
He just stared at me as if I had just asked him if he keeps clowns in his closet. After regaining my breath I stood up, smiled and held out my hand. "Hey, I'm-"
"Riku."
I blinked. "What?"
"Your name is Riku."
He blinked. I blinked again.
"How'd you-"
"In the office remember? The principal yelled your name."
It took my brain a while to process this. I had totally forgotten that Sora was the kid I had seen in the office. Slowly I pulled my hand back and was quiet for a moment, because honestly he had ruined everything I had planned to say to him.
He started to chew his bottom lip during the awkward silence and looked up at me.
"Well, My name is-"
"Sora."
"Wha?"
He blinked at me confused, and I could tell he became even more confused when I let a smirk spread across my face.
"That's pay back for interrupting me."
I couldn't help but grin as I saw the corners of his mouth tug upwards in a tiny smile.
XxXxXxX
"He never eats in the cafeteria. I mean what if it snowed!"
Wakka, Tidus and me all sighed in unison. Honestly, sometimes Selphie could come up with the most ridiculous ideas. Tidus took a huge bite of his sandwich and decided to speak, "Melphie me mive mo a msland!"
Wakka and me just glared at him, wiping the mustard he spat at us off our faces with our napkins. But Selphie shrieked loudly, something about having his cooties all over her now, and proceeded to smack him over the head with her fruit-roll-up.
Sighing softly after she assaulted Tidus with her roll of fruit, Selphie frowned and glanced out the window to where Sora was sitting on the grass eating lunch by himself.
"It just looks so sad."
She gave all three of us boys a look.
Uh oh. I knew that meant trouble.
She cleared her throat loudly. "Sad enough for someone to do something about it."
Silence settled over the four of us.
Her eyes narrowed.
"As in going and inviting him to eat with us!"
Again, the silence.
"ARGH! YOU GUYS!"
Tidus was either brave enough or stupid enough to say something back. "Selph! What do you want us to do about it? If you feel so bad for him, why don't you go over there and invite him yourself!"
All three of us guys jumped back as Selphie gripped her hair and started to pull, scrunching up her face in frustration. "Because! Then people will start to think I like him! Like, like-like him! I'm just trying to be a nice person! And you guys aren't helping! You guys are being such jerk-jerky-jerks!"
By this time the whole cafeteria was looking at us now.
Quickly I stood up.
"Ok, ok! I'll go! Just calm down!"
Suddenly her frustrated face turned into a smile and she was hugging me. "You're the best Riku!"
I sighed and rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, I know."
XxXxXxX
I found him sitting under one of the palm trees outside, just staring off into space. I almost felt bad for interrupting his space out time. He looked so happy wherever his mind had taken him.
Slowly and quietly I reached my foot out and shoved him in the shoulder with enough force to tip him. It was to my surprise when he let out a squeal and actually fell over.
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at his expression. His eyes were about as wide as dinner plates, his mouth his wide open in surprise. His gaze finally traveled up to meet mine and he blinked slowly.
"R-Riku?"
With a cocky flick of my head, I rested my hands on my hips and looked down at him.
"In the flesh. Who were you expecting Batman?"
He had sat up by now and scratched his head, messing up the disaster zone that he called hair. He then did something I've never seen him do. He grinned. And let me tell you, it was HUGE. This wasn't just a secret grin that friends pass each other when they share an inside joke or something. This was a full out grin. I mean I could honestly see some of his back teeth it was so big.
"Heh, Sorry. I was just surprised." Still grinning he rubbed the back of his neck.
I couldn't help but smile back at him. What can I say? That grin was contagious.
"Do you need something?"
"Huh?"
The grin went away and he tilted his head to the side. "I said, do you need something?"
"Do I need something….Oh! Yeah, sorry. My mind got side tracked."
"It's ok."
Trying to act like it was the most normal thing for me to be asking the new kid to sit with us, was hard.
I thought about doing it how Selphie would.
But then I thought otherwise. Because if I did the boy would probably be running for the hills.
Shoving my hands in my pockets I tried to look anywhere but at him. "Umm...Well you see I was wondering, well more like me and my friends were wondering if you would, kind of like to maybe sit with us. At our table. In the lunch room."
Smooth Riku. Real smooth.
I could feel his eyes on me, so I waved my hand in the air as if waving the idea away, "But you know, you don't have to if you don't-"
"No!"
I blinked and looked over at him with shock at his loud out burst. He was turning pink.
"I-I mean. Whatever…Sure I'd like to sit with you guys." He shrugged like it didn't matter, but I could tell by the way he couldn't stop smiling that he was happy someone had asked him.
I laughed and watched as he scrambled to put all his books back in his bag.
"Cool. Just follow me."
XxXxXxX
"So, Sora is it? How do you get your hair to stick up like that?" Tidus asked chewing his apple thoughtfully.
Sora's hands went immediately to his hair to try and at least tame it a little.
"Maybe he uses glue ya?"
All three of us guys burst out laughing at Wakkas comment, and when Sora started to turn pink. But our fun was cut short after we were smacked over our heads with an empty lunch bag, and Sora was hugged.
"I think it's adorable! So just don't listen to them Sooooora!" Selphie squealed and she hugged Sora even tighter. I couldn't tell if his face was getting redder from Selphie hugging him, or he just couldn't breath.
After Tidus telling her she might kill Sora if she held on any longer, and me promising her one of my cookies, we got her off of him.
Slowly but surely Sora started to warm up to us and vice versa. He told us about the city he moved from and his friends he used to have. Then somehow Sora got Tidus to start telling us the story about how he managed to jump across three boulders getting away with only a broken leg and a concussion. After while I noticed that Sora never opened his lunch bag.
"And so I was in the air and I was clearing those boulders like it was nothing! Then suddenly I came crashing down into the-"
"Aren't you hungry?"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at me.
Tidus raised an eyebrow. "Um…No. I was going to say into the sand but-"
"No, not you." I pointed at Sora. "You. You haven't touched your lunch."
Sora blinked slowly but then shook his head and smiled softly. "Nah, I'm not really hungry."
I noticed there didn't seem to be much in his bag. Frowning, split my sandwich in two and handed it too him.
"Here. I'm not that hungry either. Help me get rid of it."
At fist he just shook his head telling me he wasn't hungry again but when I offered it too him again he took it and took a small bite, then in about three seconds flat wolfed the rest down. I grinned and opened my chips and laid them on the table where we could both reach them.
Tidus went on with his story.
And from that day until Sora turned twelve and was able to buy his lunch.
I always brought a second lunch.
XxXxXxX
When Blitzball teams were chosen during recess, Sora was always picked last, and he rarely got to play. One day when I was team captain, I picked Sora first. He had told me one day that he had played blitzball at his previous school and that he was pretty good at it. So I put him on the offense. You can bet people did no take that well.
"What the heck are you doing Riku! Girly boy here can't play for beans!" I glared over in Terrance's direction when I saw Sora cringe at the nick-name. I ignored him and told Sora to go out to the field. But Sora didn't budge.
I looked down at him in confusion. "Sora?"
"See! He can't even take orders right! Take him out!"
I watched as Sora's eyes started to water slightly. He bowed his head so no one could see.
That made me angry.
"I bet he couldn't even pick up the stupid ball he's so sma-"
"SHUT UP!"
Everyone quieted at my out-burst. Even Sora shot his head up to look at me.
I didn't care. I glared at Terrance as I stalked towards him.
"You just shut about him!"
Step.
" You don't know him!"
Step.
"For all you know he could be Superman!"
By now my face was about two inches from Terrance's, granted I had to stand on my tippy toes to be eye to eye with him, because of his height. But that didn't seem to make him any less intimidated.
"And you know what! I bet you eight dollars that he can kick your lilly-white butt on the field!"
This snapped Terrance out of his trance, and he glared. He roughly shoved me out of the way and grunted a "fine." before storming off to his side of the field.
I huffed at his back and stalked back over to my team's side. Sora looked terrified.
"R-Riku?"
"What!"
He cringed but continued anyway, "Are you okay?"
I looked at him, my face void of emotion, for a good long time, just to make him sweat. Then I let a smile spread across my face. "Yeah, I'm fine. But if you don't win I'm so going to kick your butt because I don't have eight dollars."
Again that grin lit up his face and he sprinted out towards the field.
It was soon obvious that Sora was a natural. After that he was one of the first chosen almost every time. After awhile-even Terrance had to admit Sora had skills.
XxXxXxX
I took a deep breath of the nice crisp air. I couldn't believe it. In four more days I would be a 3rd grader so would Tidus, and Wakka and then Selphie and Sora would be 2nd graders. I smiled and leaned back against the tree on my little island right next to the kids island. Sora sat next to me on the ground fiddling around with some different colored strings. But I paid him no mind and just closed my eyes.
It had all gone by so fast. The rest of the school year was filled with more blitzball games, sleepless sleepovers, Tidus, Wakka, and me figuring out that Sora and Selphie plus pixie sticks were not a good mixture. And summer was that much fun just times five.
We were getting older, but oh well. When you got older things just got better!
I smiled at the idea. If things could get better than this, I couldn't wait.
"Hey Riku."
"Mmm?"
"Here…"
I cracked one eye open and looked over in his direction. He was holding something out to me. I opened the other eye, sat up and took a hold of what he was giving me. It looked like a piece of really skinny blue and yellow rope made by just tying knots.
"What the heck is it?"
He glared at me, is lips scrunching up to form that all to famous Sora pout I've grown to know.
"It's a bracelet!"
I raised an eyebrow. "It is?"
"Yes! It's a friendship bracelet! Selphie is teaching me how to make them."
"It looks like something my cat hacked up."
"Argh! Forget it!" With that he snatched it back and shoved it in his pocket.
I laughed at him. "Oh come on Sora! I was only kidding!"
I heard him mumble something that sounded like a, "Yeah, right."
"No really, I'm serious. I want it. Can I please have it?" I gave him the best-hurt puppy face I could muster. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye, groaned then chucked the bracelet at me. "Don't do that! You know I hate when you do that!"
I laughed and caught the bracelet, easily wrapping it around my wrist and tying it place.
"So, what's with the bracelet?"
I watched as he bit his lip slightly and watched the ocean. At first I thought he wasn't going to answer me, then he looked at me with the most serious expression I've ever seen on his face and said, "Selphie told me that friendship bracelets are something you give to your friends. So I wanted to give you one….Cause…you're my best friend." He ducked his head into his knees after he said this. I guess it was because he was blushing.
I smiled and looked at the bracelet. It was cruddy, and had no design what so ever. But for some reason that really didn't matter to me. I knew I would treasure it even if it wasn't treasure.
The dove had finally given me my present…
"Your such a girl, Sora."
"Riku!"
And his name was Sora.
A/N: -falls over- Gah! Writing this took forever. I actually had to do research on the Game blitzball! I didn't know one thing about it so I had to research it! Alright, Well it's done so please review to help my self-esteem! Bye Bye!