The Cricket Revolution

In which Sora rescues a defenseless insect and Tidus plays with crayons.

-

Life sucked for Sora.

Well, maybe not life, but the past week, for sure. Today in particular. So far, he'd managed to spill two shakes, break the blender, and shatter three dishes. He didn't know why they even had dishes, because he worked at a beach-side snack shack, for god's sake, and they served people out of paper cups and cones. What were they doing hiding dishes in the back room like that? Privately, Sora suspected that someone had planted them there with Sora's big, clumsy hands specifically in mind. Probably Yuffie. She was always playing pranks like that.

Pranks designed to get him fired.

Things could have been worse, he supposed. For example, he could have been like that cricket over there, where some weirdo was feeding him to his pet iguana in the middle of the street. Who fed their iguanas in the middle of the street, anyway? Sora certainly wouldn't. He liked crickets. He'd even had a pet one, once. In fact…

Wait a minute.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Sora asked, putting on his best appalled expression as he pushed his way over.

"I'm feeding my pet, what's it look like?" the almost-murderer asked with a scowl, one hand poised above his iguana's mouth where the last cricket dangled precariously. Sora looked at it sympathetically.

"You can't feed it that," he insisted, voice bordering on a whine, and reached out his hand.

"Yes, I can," the guy insisted, jerking the cricket away. "Watch."

"No, wait," Sora yelled, sending groceries scattering as a young girl behind him jumped and dropped her bags in surprise. "I'll, um..." He rifled through his pockets frantically. "I'll buy it from you, here!"

"...You want to buy my cricket?" he asked, staring in disbelief.

Sora nodded. "I have three nickels and a paper clip," he said and stuck out his hand.

"That won't even buy me a new cricket," he said with a glare. "No way."

"So you're going to murder it?" Sora asked, fidgeting anxiously. "Come on," he wheedled. "I'll give you a free shake from the shake shack down the street."

"Can I feed my iguana a paopu smoothie? No." He stared at Sora coolly and outstretched an expectant hand. "Cough up a dollar."

Sora sighed. "Fine." Casting a pitiful glance at the cricket, who was still clutched between the man's fingers, he hurriedly dug his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a dollar bill.

"Heh, thanks," said the man and pocketed the money with a grin. Without a backwards glance, he handed the cricket to Sora and shuffled off with his iguana.

Glaring at his back, Sora cradled the cricket in his hands and whispered to it conspiratorially, "See if I ever properly blend his shakes..."

Yeah, right. Like that wouldn't get him fired.

The cricket, predictably, said nothing in response, and Sora was suddenly faced with the dilemma of where the hell to keep him. He doubted his pocket would be a very good place, as it would be doomsville for the cricket the first time he sat down without thinking…which rather defeated the purpose of saving him to begin with. Looking around for a moment, Sora ducked inside the nearest store on the street, where he quickly purchased a small tank. Actually, it was a goldfish bowl, but he refused to tell the cricket that, and mentally referred to it as a cricket tank from that point on.

"Dude, I got a pet," was the first thing he said when he walked inside his apartment, where his roommate Tidus was not-so-studiously making flashcards for his psychology exam the next day. The blond had a pile of textbooks spread across the coffee table and surrounding carpet, not to mention two economy packs of note cards and a myriad of papers. In the middle of it, Tidus was slumped with his head against his fist, obviously disgruntled by the thought of actually having to work for his grades for once. True to slacker form, the card nearest to him showed a small doodle of a girl with flippy hair rather than any relevant information.

"Sora," he mumbled exasperatedly, "we're not allowed to keep any pets, you know that."

Rolling his eyes, Sora ignored him and held up the tank for closer inspection. "What should I name him?" he wondered.

Tossing down his pen with a little whine (which he would never admit to making), Tidus turned to him and muttered, "Sora, I told you, we—" he caught sight of the tank and stopped, pulling a face. "Wait, is that a cricket?"

"Yes, he is a cricket," Sora said, sparing Tidus a frown. "I rescued him from the unforgiving jowls of death on my way home from work today."

"He?" Tidus repeated incredulously. "How do you even know it has a gender?" Note cards forgotten for the moment, he pushed himself off the couch and crossed the room to peer at the tank suspiciously. "I mean, how can you tell? It just looks buggy and gross to me."

"I can just tell, okay?"

"If you say so," Tidus said, looking dubious, and retreated back to his cushion.

"Tidus," Sora said suddenly, tapping on the glass again, "do you think he's lonely in there? He isn't, you know, cricketing. Or anything."

"Don't they only do that at night or something?" Tidus responded and crinkled his nose in thought.

"It is night," Sora said, sounding desperate.

"... Right."

"What if he's sad?" Sora held the tank up at eye level, staring at the cricket with worried eyes. "I should find him some friends or something."

"It's the middle of winter, man," Tidus replied, rather unhelpfully.

"So? I'm just going to the park," Sora said, misinterpreting the statement. "I'll bring a jacket," he added as an afterthought.

"That's not what I meant," Tidus sighed and resisted the urge to smack his forehead.

"I'll be back in a few," Sora said, oblivious, and hastily tugged on his coat and grabbed the cricket tank. "Call my cell if you need me."

"You don't have one," Tidus started to reply, but his roommate had already slammed the door and bounded down the steps cheerfully.

Typical, Tidus thought and grumpily returned to his flashcards.

-

One hour later, Sora had found three earthworms, a spider, and a developing case of hypothermia (or so he'd told himself in a sudden, unexpected bout of self-pity). "Don't worry," he said, looking at the cricket tank with an unnaturally fond expression. "I'll find another one. After all, you had to come from somewhere, right?"

"You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity," said an unknown voice from behind.

Yelping, Sora jumped to his feet, somehow only stumbling twice, and turned to face the speaker with an unguarded blush. "Uh, no," he said, motioning wildly at the tank at his feet. "You see, I was talking to my cricket."

The stranger, a young man with silver hair and unidentifiable eyes shrouded by the poor lighting, tilted his head and stared. "What are you doing in the middle of the park at—" he paused to push up his sleeve and glance at his watch "—eight thirty, talking to a cricket tank?"

"Finding more crickets," Sora explained matter-of-factly.

The silver-haired boy raised an eyebrow. "You could just buy some."

"That would defeat the purpose," he said with clenched fists.

"... The purpose of what?"

"Of rescuing them."

The stranger smirked. "From their natural habitat," he said dryly.

"From the unforgiving jowls of death, okay?!" Sora scowled, shoving his hands into his pockets as he glanced at his cricket, now chirping placidly inside his home. His expression softened.

"Define 'unforgiving jowls of death,' please," said the other boy, undeterred by Sora's almost intimidating enthusiasm for his cause.

"From people who want to feed them to their pets," said Sora with a gusty, almost exasperated sigh. He listened carefully for the song of more crickets while trying to watch the other boy as he crept through the grass (when he'd still lived at home, his mother had insisted it was rude not to look at the people to whom he was speaking). "I bought this one from a guy with an iguana, and now he needs friends to keep him—" his voice broke off into an undignified yell as he slipped, windmilling, into a pond he'd forgotten even existed in the park.

Stifling a laugh, the silver-haired boy walked to the edge of the pond, where he leaned forward and asked, "Shit, are you okay?" Biting his lip to, Sora assumed, hide a smile, he held out his hand. "That's what you get for wandering around the park at night."

"Are you going to molest me or something?" Sora distrustfully eyed the proffered hand and discreetly shrank away.

"Actually," he said with a look of increasing amusement, "I was planning on helping you out of that pond, but if you'd rather stay..." He let the sentence trail off and slowly began pulling back his hand.

"Misery loves company," Sora exclaimed, just before he grabbed the other boy's hand and pulled, sending him ungracefully into the water, headfirst.

"…Thanks," he said sarcastically, once he'd surfaced, and looked at his mud-streaked, previously pristine shirt with a wet, disgusted look. "And to think I actually considered helping your cause."

"I slipped again," Sora said with a mischievous grin. "Really."

"Right," said the other boy, rolling his eyes as he stood. "This time, you can help yourself out." He placed both hands on the edge of the pond and, with a faintly revolted expression, pulled himself out with ease.

Sora followed clumsily behind him, climbing over the side and muddying his jeans beyond repair. Once he was out of the water, he wringed the water from his hair with both hands and asked in a casual voice, "So, what are you doing in the park at night, anyway?"

"I was on my way back to campus," he said, turning to smirk at Sora as he flicked a wet piece of silver hair behind his ear. "A much saner excuse than yours, if you ask me."

Sora kindly ignored that. "You go to the university?" he asked, bending to scoop up his cricket tank.

"Yeah." He glanced at Sora. "What about you?"

"I, uh," Sora stuttered, not about to tell this stranger that he was too poor to afford college without a scholarship (which he absolutely did not have the grades to acquire), and he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "I mean—I was..." There was an embarrassed pause, during which he coughed and scraped together a plausible excuse. "I'm taking a year off to save money," he said, which was sort of the truth, anyway. Half-truths still counted, right?

"And to save crickets, apparently," noted the other boy with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Nodding at Sora's tank, he asked, "Any luck?"

"Well." No, Sora wanted to say, but that sounded lame. "I just started today," he said instead, which actually didn't sound much better, now that he thought about it. Crap.

"Right," he murmured with another glance at his (thankfully waterproof) watch. "You know, the pet supply store is still open. You can get some there."

"I told you, that defeats the purpose," said Sora, shaking his head furiously.

"No, it doesn't. They're more likely to be eaten by an iguana, since they're being sold there specifically for that purpose." He smiled faintly. "Come on. I'll pay."

"Hey, you're right!" Sora grinned and bounced on his heels, then paused suddenly as a thought occurred to him. "Will you really pay?"

"Yeah, sure," he said and waved a hand vaguely as he began to walk, presumably to the pet store. "They can't be that expensive. They're crickets."

"Well, this one in the tank cost a dollar," Sora declared and followed close behind the other boy, lifting the tank to show it off.

"You got ripped off," the other boy snorted.

"So?" Sora tapped the glass fondly. "One life saved."

"Does it have a name?" he asked as they entered the store, pausing to wipe his feet courteously on the doormat.

"No," Sora said and completely disregarded the mat. He tracked water and mud across the floor as he looked around, oblivious to the glaring eyes of the clerk. "I left before Tidus could help me name it. I don't know why I asked him, because he doesn't even like crickets." He glanced over his shoulder. "Any ideas?"

"Riku is obviously the best choice," he said, heading for the front desk.

"What kind of name is that?" He went to follow him, but paused as he passed a cage of mice. He waved cheerfully.

"Mine."

"... oh." Sheepishly, he pulled himself away from the rodents and traipsed over to the desk. And Riku. "I'm Sora."

"Nice to meet you," Riku said, smiling briefly before he tapped on the counter to get the clerk's attention. "Excuse me."

Vaguely disgruntled by customers so close to closing time, the clerk glanced up from his flimsy paperback book and said, "Hm?"

"I'd like—" he paused to give Sora's small cricket tank a thoughtful glance "—five crickets, please."

Sighing, the clerk rang them up and passed over a clear, plastic bag full of air and crickets, while Sora excitedly poked at the bird cages. When Riku gave them the bag, he yelped indignantly and quickly opened the bag and tipped them inside the tank to meet their new friend.

"Thanks, man!" Sora gushed happily and held up the tank to grin at his new pets. "I should start up a collection fund, or something. To save crickets."

"Good luck with that," Riku snorted. "Not to be a pessimist, but I don't think many people care about the collective fate of crickets."

"We'll see about that," Sora muttered and edged towards the door. "I'll catch you on the flip side, Mr. Cricket Fate Pessimist Guy."

"I prefer Riku," he said with a smug-looking smirk.

The clerk rolled his eyes and interrupted their conversation. "We're closing."

"And we're leaving," Riku said, and turned to look at Sora, who was staring at the store's cricket cage with a determined expression. Sensing trouble, Riku took him by the elbow and steered him out of the store.

"What was that for?" Sora demanded and pulled his arm away, shivering as the air from outside hit him at full force.

"Just keeping you from rescuing anything else."

"Hmph." Pouting, Sora turned his face away and crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest. "I wasn't going to."

"Right, of course not," said Riku, rolling his eyes. As they reached the end of the sidewalk and waited for a traffic light to turn green, he glanced at the street sign and made a thoughtful noise.

"What?" Sora asked, turning to glance at him again.

"Didn't know I could take this way to the dorms," he said, stepping off the curb and into the street as the light turned. "I'd better leave now. It was nice meeting you, Sora."

"You too," said the brunette, holding the cricket cage tightly as he watched Riku round the corner and walk away. Smiling, he waved and ran the rest of the way home.

-

"Tidus, I had the greatest idea," Sora shouted as he burst excitedly into their apartment.

"You found a way to help me cheat on my midterm without getting caught?" Tidus asked, looking up excitedly from his pile of note cards.

"Nope! I found something better." Sora paused to set the cricket tank on the floor and began peeling off his soggy jacket.

"You're kidding me, right?" The blond stared at the tank in disbelief, rising to his feet to point obnoxiously. "You found more?"

"Five more," Sora told him brightly. Grinning, he bounced over to the couch and took a seat, paying no mind when Tidus frowned and scooted away.

"You're dripping all over the carpet," he noted with a crinkled nose.

"I fell in a pond," Sora explained, not to be derailed. "But listen! I'm starting a Cricket Relief Fund! Isn't that great?"

"What were you doing in the pond?"

"I told you, I fell," he said with a shrug, then pointed to the stack of unused note cards. "Mind if I use these?"

"Get a towel first."

Sora made a vague noise and pushed the blond's textbooks off the table. "Where are the pens?"

"Out of ink." Tidus nudged a box of crayons in his direction. "We've only got these."

"That'll work," Sora said brightly as he selected a crayon. "What d'you think should go on the front?"

"A picture of you getting a towel," Tidus muttered and glared somewhat unsuccessfully.

"Huh?"

"You're ruining my flashcards!" he complained.

"Relax, I'll clean up in a minute," Sora mumbled distractedly, ripping a note card in two. With his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth, he dutifully began to doodle a rather poor rendition of a cricket nimbly evading the jaws of an iguana.

"You don't look busy to me."

"I'm in the middle of starting a revolution!" Sora said, waving the blue crayon importantly.

"Fine, I'll move," Tidus grumbled. Scooping up his textbook, some note cards, and a red crayon, he waved at Sora with his free hand and started towards his bedroom. "I'll see you in the morning."

"G'night," Sora called cheerfully, and redoubled his efforts to create Cricket Relief Fund membership cards.

It was going to be another late night.