A/N: I spent a month planning and writing this, so I better get feedback, whether its good or bad. Please and thank you.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts or its characters.

Warnings: Depending on your take of the characters, there may be a little OOCness and of course there is boy/boy relationship in here.

Looking out at the sunset was always relaxing for Sora but it didn't seem to be working this time.

He had traveled from the mainland to the play island only to cross the bridge to where he and Riku used to spar. He had arrived sometime before the sun had started to set. Sora's mind was running, leaving him to stare blankly at the colors that stained the sky. He was sitting on the bent over papou tree while his mind took him back to two days ago, Friday.

The day had started out well but had eventually drained into something bleak. It had happened right after school, when Riku had come running up to him and Kairi.

"Sora!"

Sora and Kairi walked next to each other up the dirt road. They were nearing the crest of the hill when the voice had rung out through the air, stilling Kairi and Sora's progress. Both turned as the silver haired older teen ran up to them. He slid to a stop, a bit out of breath.

"Jeez Riku, don't collapse."

Sora glared at Kairi, his best friend, not finding the joke the least bit funny. Riku looked at them through the fringe which often obscured his aquamarine eyes from view. His eyes always reminded Sora of the shallow water surrounding the play island rarely played on anymore. He was knocked out of his thoughts by Riku's voice.

"Don't worry Kairi, you're eye candy is stronger than that," Riku retorted, tone amused with an underlying streak of arrogance.

Kairi rolled her eyes exaggretedly with a small smile.

"You're going to Sora's right?"

Sora drew in a sharp breath, startled that he had forgotten Riku had said he was coming over yesterday.

"I'm sorry Riku, I totally forgot," Sora apologized softly, eyes lowering to the ground in embarresment.

Riku grinned and shrugged. "It's alright Sora, it's not like no one ever forget things."

Sora raised his eyes and smiled back, feeling reassured that Riku wasn't mad. Sora brought his arms up to clasp behind his head. He jerked his head in the direction of the crest, on the other side of which laid their houses.

"Come on than, lets go."

"Hey, Sora?"

Kairi had left a little while ago and now Sora and Riku were in Sora's room, both laying side by side on the bed, looking at ceiling. Sora had started to feel nervous once Kairi had left and now a jolt of it hit him at Riku's words. Sora maintained his look at the ceiling determinedly while making a noise of acknowledgment.

"There's this girl."

'Dear god, please not again,' Sora mentally pleaded with dread, trying to keep his face relaxed.

This happened at least once every two months. Riku would telephone and ask to come over in a day or two and Sora would always say okay. Riku would come over and tell him about his latest crush. Sora always felt nervous around the time he knew Riku would call and he would try to prepare himself for his long time crush to spill about his own.

"She's in our year and my English class."

Sora's mind tried to think off all the girls in that class but couldn't ocme up with which one might have caught Riku's eye this time. He drew a blank.

"I think I really like this one but I'm not sure if I should approach her just yet."

Sora was a bit confused this time though. Usually Riku would rant and rave about how wonderful the girl was and how he would ask her out, but this time it seemed he was looking for advice.

"Why are you asking me Riku?" Sora asked, features scrunched up in confusion as he turned his head to look at Riku's profile.

Riku finally turned to look at Sora with a 'duh' face on.

"You're my best friend Sora, aren't you?"

Sora was left to gap at Riku before finally closing his dropped jaw.

"S-sure Riku."

Riku had narrowed his eyes to stare at Sora, causing his nervousness to increase. But than Riku had broken out into a grin and Sora couldn't help but give one back.

It was two days later and now it had finally caught up with him.

After Riku had left, Sora had let tears trail down his cheeks as he stared out his window to look at the blackness that followed sunset.

He had been kept busy Saturday, not letting his mind to drift to the conversation, but now it was Sunday and there wasn't anything Sora needed to do. So he had sneaked away to the play island after bringing home some groceries. He had come to watch the sunset, hoping it would help calm his raging emotions.

Instead though, his mind had turned to what had happened Friday. It wasn't the first time Riku had torn him apart without even knowing it. Riku was popular in school, all the girls were star struck by him and all the guys either envied him or thought him lucky.

Without him noticing, a single tear slide down his cheek.

"You know, you should win an Oscar."

The familiar voice startled Sora and he was lucky he didn't fall off the bent trunk. Instead he turned around only to find Kairi behind him. He stared at her, feeling a bit confused at her statement.

"You have a rabid crush on him and yet you act like you're only his friend."

She wasn't looking at him and didn't see his shocked expression, only staring at the setting sun.

"We need to get back, your mother sent me to get you," Kairi announced airily, hands clasped behind her back as she rocked back slightly on her heels.

Sora sighed and turned his attention back to the sun, which was almost below the horizon.

"Alright, I only came out for the sunset anyway."

Kairi only smiled as she watched the sun finally sink.

Even though the play island was surrounded by shallow water, it was still deep enough to require a boat to get back to the main island. Kairi had left it tied to the dock of the play island. Kairi made him paddle them back, her logic being that she had already paddled herself to the play island so it was only fair Sora shared half the work load. After giving each other warm good byes with promises of meeting up later, both split up on the road.

Once Sora got home he briefly gave his mother an explanation as to where he had disappeared to after shopping and promptly went to bed as soon as he was dismissed upstairs. Instead of a restful night however, a nightmare plagued him.

The world around him was foggy and barren.

Sora cast his gaze around but saw nothing. Suddenly though, out of nowhere, Riku appeared, his back to him. A unrecognizable female clung to his arm as she leaned against him, cooing something into his ear.

"Riku?"

But Riku ignored his call, instead he slide his arm around the girl's waist and Sora dazedly wondered if she was the one Riku had been talking about earlier.

Suddenly though, there was a flash of light and the next thing Sora knew, he was sitting in a chair across from Riku. A table was between them and Riku's elbows rested on the table, fingers interlaced and his chin resting atop them. Sora's face furrowed in confusion and a crease appeared between his eyebrows, the skin on his nose scrunching up.

Riku gave a low chuckle and Sora's face smoothed out as he stared at Riku.

"You should win an Oscar, you know?"

Sora frowned as Kairi's words were more or less repeated to him. Riku put his hands flat on the table and looked Sora dead in the eye, a serious look in his eyes.

"I wish I could tell you there's a twist, some kind of hero in disguise, but there isn't. I wish I could tell you there's a kiss, and that we're together, but we're not."

Sora's eyes widened, surprise and terror warring for dominance. Riku couldn't know, that was the worse thing that could happen. Sora continued to stare at Riku's grim expression in horror before jolting awake.

Sora woke breathing hard, his mind still locked onto the nightmare that had kept him tossing and turning, twisting the sheets around his body. Not a second later the alarm came to life, blaring the FM radio throughout the room. Sora swore he nearly gave himself whiplash with how fast he turned towards the source of the noise in reaction to it. His arm lunged out to hit the sleep button. He spent a few seconds shaking his head and rubbing his eyes.

A half hour later Sora was dressed in the school uniform. His silver crown necklace was on as usual and his sneakers were worn and a dirty white from a few years of use. With a quick run of the hair brush through spiky brown locks, Sora was headed downstairs to make himself breakfast before he had to trek to school. Two heated Poptarts later had Sora out the door and down the drive.

He walked down the sidewalk at a steady pace and kept his body relax and his thoughts on the fact that in a few minutes he'd be passing Kairi's house and joining her in the walk to school. From there the walk would take roughly twenty minutes. Whenever he complained about the distance Kairi would say that it was cardiovascular exercise.

The fiery red head was waiting in front of her house, standing on the sidewalk. She was wearing her school uniform as usual, sneaker s clean white. She rolled her eyes when he stopped, waiting for her to start walking. They walked in companionable silence, Kairi knowing that Sora was usually too tired for coherent conversation at seven in the morning.

Riku was waiting in front of the school for them, looking unusually good in his uniform. Sora took in Riku's features almost ravenously but Riku didn't even notice as he greeted the duo, smiling the whole time.

Kairi only stared at him incredulously. "How can anyone be this animated this early?" she asked no one in particular and as such, no one answered her.

Riku gave a shrug. "It's the caffeine."

Kairi gave a fake laugh as an incredulous look crossed her face. "No, Riku's not perfect? What will the fans say? Oh the horror!" A theatrically exaggerated sigh made its way past her lips as an arm made its way across her forehead.

Riku only laughed at her. "You'll never get an acting job like that Kairi."

Kairi gave a humph and walked away her head held high. "See if I ever talk to you again, Mr. Uzu."

Sora gave a nervous smile as Rku turned his attention to him. Riku walked over to Sora to stand besides him and threw an arm around Sora's shoulders.

"Come on Sora, let's go."

Sora returned Riku's smile with shaky one of his own. Without further ado, both friends walked the last few steps to the school. As soon as they stepped into the school, and consequently the crowded hall, people started to surround Riku, pushing Sora out of the way. Soon enough, people surrounded Riku and Sora was left near the entrance of the school as Riku and his entourage walked further down the hall.

Sora stared longingly after the crowd but when they turned the corner and were out of sight, Sora started to walk to his locker.

His first four periods were uneventful but than lunch came around, the lunch period he had with both Kairi and Riku. Riku was at a table with thirty-one other people. The benched rectangular tables that made up the lunch room long enough to support thirty-two people each. Sora and Kairi were seated a few seats away from Riku and his entourage, at an empty table. They liked it better than having dozens of people fawning over them.

"Don't they know they're just making idiots of themselves?" Kairi asked as she held her fork aloft in one hand, looking in the other tables direction.

Sora made a non committal noise as he continued to look down at his tray of lunch food. He used his fork to root around in it as Kairi talked.

"I don't know why you like him Sora, he hardly has time to talk to us."

Sora shrugged, still looking down at his food. He head her sigh before she talked again.

"He's coming over."

Sora's head shot up to look around. Riku was walking towards their table with a steady stride. He reached the table easily enough and plopped down next to Sora. Sora swallowed hard, having just put a piece of food in his mouth.

"Sorry we got separated Sora, I didn't even realize it."

At those words Sora's stomach tightened and his head swam. Riku hadn't even noticed he was gone, it just helped to reconfirm Sora's beliefs.

"It's a-alright R-Riku"

Riku shook his head vehemently. "No, it's not."

Sora kept silent after that, having nothing to say that didn't involve embarrassing himself. Fortunately Kairi kept up conversation with Riku. A few minutes before the bell rung however the attention turned on him.

"Are you guys going to the dance together?" Riku asked, the question more or less directed to Kairi.

"As friends, sure, I haven't been asked out yet."

Sora's head shot up to look at Riku. He had detected something underlying Riku's tone when he had asked.

'Get a grip idiot, he wouldn't be jealous of Kairi.'

Sora mentally shook his head to pay attention to the ongoing conversation.

"Okay. Hey, Sora, I can come over today, right?"

Sora nearly jerked in surprise. Riku hadn't called to ask him like usual and the change in routine seemed to dislodge Sora's reality for a few seconds before he came back to himself.

"Sure Riku," Sora affirmed with a nod and a shaky smile, still feeling a little dazed.

"Thanks," Riku retorted warmly, a grin firmly in place.

Than the bell rang and Sora blinked as Riku stood up abruptly, stepping away from the bench as a crowd of people headed towards them, only to be swept away by them not second later.

Kairi shook her head and sighed as she stood. "You really are a masochist, aren't you Sora?"

It was just loud enough for Sora to hear, and than she walked away.

Later that day as Sora was exiting the school, he vaguely heard a voice call his name but he paid no attention to it until the person calling his name clapped him on the shoulder. His eyes widened in surprise as he spun around only to come face to face with Riku.

He stared stunned as Riku gave a chuckle. "Forgot I was coming home with you?" Riku gave him a raised eyebrow as he waited for an answer.

"N-no, I didn't. It just . . . slipped my mind," Sora gave a small nervous smile in return and Riku gave anther chuckle.

"Its alright Sora, it happens to the best of us." Riku jerked his head in the direction of Sora's house. "Come on, there something I want to talk about with you."

Though Sora knew it probably wasn't anything big, Sora couldn't help the clench his stomach muscles gave as the two started walking towards Sora's house. There was a faint breeze playing in the air and brought with a hint of the oceans scent. The dirt road was firm under there feet and the grass was relatively green on either side of it with only a few yellow patches. The few frond trees that scattered the island dotted the areas on either side of the fenced dirt road.

For that while Sora let himself relax, bringing his arms to cross behind his head as he tilted it up to observe the sky. Blue eyes that didn't quite match the clear light blue sky watched the few clouds that passed over head, which weren't much, just a few vague wisps barely marring the clear sky.

Unbidden, Riku's phone conversation from Saturday came to him.

"Sora, there's a call for you!" his mother yelled upstairs.

"I'll be right there!" Sora yelled back, harried.

He had just got out of the shower and had been dressing when his mother had shouted.

"Sora, remember the girl I was talking about Friday?"

Sora's stomach had dropped at the fanatical tone Riku was talking with.

"Could I come over, maybe Monday, I really need to talk to someone about her."

Sora gulped, feeling a bit queasy. "S-sure, R-riku."

"Are you alright Sora? You sound faint."

"I -m f-i-ne."

"Sora?" Riku sounded worried but Sora ignored it.

"Bye."

"Bye," Riku gave slowly in return before Sora hung up.

Just remembering that night made his stomach drop.

By the time he snapped out of his day dream remembrance they were already coming up to Sora's two story plain white house. Riku and Sora traveled up the drive, Sora giving Riku a grin as he searched through his backpack for the house keys. It took a bit but Sora finally secured them after rifling around a bit. Producing the key with a triumphant grin he turned towards Riku to joke but choked on his words at Riku's smile.

He felt himself blush and hurridly looked away to stick the key in the lock. Upon opening the door, Sora discovered the house silent and for a minute was confused but than he remembered his mother saying something about taking a few extra hours at the diner.

Sora dropped his bag by the door and Riku did the same quickly after. They wandered into the kitchen where Sora raided the cabinets while Riku rifled through the refrigerator. They had done the same thing countless times before so it was a routine by now. By the time Sora had filled a bowel with potato chips, Riku had already poured two cups. After giving the kitchen one last look over, Sora grabbed the bowel of the counter and headed for the swinging door that separated the kitchen from the stairs, Riku following after him with the drinks.

The wooden staircase was carpeted and lead straight to the second floor. Navigating the stairs didn't take long and making it to Sora's room was even faster than that, being the second door on the right. The door was already open so Sora was able to walk right in, Riku trailing behind him. The room was a bit messy with dirty clothes littering the floor but nothing major.

Sora set the bowel on his desk and Riku followed his lead, putting the cups next to the bowel. Sora left the bowel alone, walking to the bed and dropping onto it suddenly, drawing his legs up so that he was sitting cross legged.

"So, what did you want to talk about exactly?" Sora asked, curious despite the sinking feeling in his gut.

Riku idly made his way to the bed to plop onto it. He sat right besides Sora, crossing his own legs on the bed, staring at the opposite wall before beginning to talk.

"Well, I told you about that girl, right?" at Sora's nod, Riku continued on. "Well, I was thinking about asking her out to the school dance."

Sora felt himself freeze and for a second he wondered vaguely if he was still breathing.

"Sora?" Riku asked, voice sounding concerned.

'Get a grip on yourself, Mr. Kari!' Sora's inner voice shouted at him, successfully negating the paralysis that had suddenly plagued his diaphragm.

He turned incredulous eyes on Riku and Riku held his hands up in front of him as if pacifying Sora.

"Hey, you're my best friend, I figured you'd be the perfect one to ask," Riku rushed out defensively, as if Sora had just threatened to maim him.

Sora sighed and looked down at his lap, mumbling a response that he knew Riku didn't quite catch by the way his brows furrowed. What he didn't notice was Riku's hand suddenly sneaking out to capture his chin to turn his head toward him. Sora found himself staring into Riku's eyes as he murmured, "What's wrong Sora?"

Sora could only stare Riku in the eyes, voice box frozen. He wanted to say something but that promptly stopped when he blurted out, "Sure, ask her out to the dance."

Riku blinked in clear surprise, obviously not expecting that, though what he had been anticipating was a mystery as well.

"Yeah, I think I will," Riku nodded as he said it, as if confirming something before he let go of Sora's chin. That seemed to be the end of that, 'cause the next thing Sora knew, Riku was getting off the bed to retrieve the bowel of chips and suddenly chatting about what movie they should watch.

Without really realizing it, soon enough Sora and Riku were engrossed in a discussion about whether or not Pirates of the Caribbean One was better or Three.

After that, the hours flew and soon enough Sora's mom was home, promptly kicking Riku out, saying that Sora and he would see each other tomorrow. Sora's week before the dance was restless.

Tuesday and Wednesday weren't so bad but than Kairi managed to get a date in Luxord, a senior with a gambling streak and Sora learned that the girl in question was Namine, a Sophomore like them that was the resident sweetheart of the high school.

The worst thing was; Sora couldn't hate Namine because she had been the one to help him pass art the year before. The girl had a hear of GOLD and it was a fact that it was impossible to hate her. Most of Thursday passed with little incident, the only sucky thing was that Roxas, Sora's best friend before Riku, had managed to snag a date with Axel for the dance, the resident pyromaniac that had faced expulsion last year for trying to arson the school, the only reason he got off was lack of evidence. Plus, his parents practically owned the school.

After that, Sora's mood had officially went down the drain, so much so that he nearly broke Riku's nose when he shoved the locker door so hard that it swung back into Riku, his reflexes the only thing having saved him.

Of course, that didn't compare to the shopping trip Kairi dragged him on. It had only taken four hours to find a dress for Kairi and a suit type thing for Sora.

The dress was a purple knee length thing that may have clashed with Kairi's hair a bit but it fit her perfectly and was flattering. Sora's outfit consisted of a blue jacket, white button up shirt, and dress pants.

The night of the dance, Sora was a wreck. He was pacing his room, dressed in his outfit, panicking. Kairi was standing in front of the room, hands on her hips as she glared at the boy.

"Sora, we need to go, or else I'll be late for my date," Kairi announced furiously.

"Good," Sora bit out.

"Go already! I am not going to the dance," Sora shouted, after hearing Kairi scream in frustration.

Kairi let out a scream of frustration and before Sora could protest, he was dragged from his room. Down the stairs they went, Sora too stunned to protest. He more or less snapped out of it when his mom handed Kairi her coat and proceeded to hand him his.

Sora opened his mouth to protest but then Kairi, being right next to him, elbowed him int he stomach and threw him his coat to cover it up. Dragging him out of the house, Kairi led him to Luxord's car, an old mustang model that Luxord claimed he won in a game of poker. No one challenged on that claim.

Sora wallowed in his misery in the back seat, grumbling to himself about sadistic cheerleaders and their yaoi tendencies. The walk to school usually took twenty minutes, the car ride only took six.

Sora had never been so happy to see concrete, even Riku's driving was tame compared to Luxord's, Luxord who had nearly run over that athletic looking jogger, a cat, and an old wheelchair bound lady in his haste to get to the school.

When Sora entered the dance behind Luxord and Kairi, his eyes seemed automatically drawn to Riku. Riku who had Namine standing next to him, smiling at each other as they danced to a slow song. Already he could fell his cheeks burning in resentful anger. Fortunately, his emotional turmoil was interrupted by Axel and Roxas making their way over, Axel's gangly body nearly leaning on Roxas's more compact one.

"Hey Ra, what's up?" Axel asked, his voice in its usual laid back tone, giving Sora a small wave, his other hand around Roxas's waist.

Sora waved back, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry I haven't been around lately."

Roxas grinned and shrugged. "It's fine Sora, we just wandered if you'd forgotten about us or something."

Sora shook his head briskly, returning the grin. "Never."

Sora's grin was broken however when Riku and Namine came up, the slow song having finished. Sora could feel the grin falling off his face and he tried to bring it back up but failed. He had only just arrived and already Sora wanted to turn and run.

Instead, he smiled at Riku and greeted Namine with a lopsided smile, trying to look at least relatively happy. Soon enough, Axel heard a song he was familiar with and dragged Roxas off to dance with him and Kairi dragged Luxord to the buffe table, leaving Sora with Riku and his date. It was awkward for a moment until Namine interrupted.

"Hey, Sora?" she asked, gaining Sora's attention. "Since you don't have a date, come dance with me. You don't mind, right Riku?" she turned to Riku, a questioning look on her face.

When he nodded, without waiting for Sora's consent, she grasped his wrist and brought his weakly resisting body to the throng of dancing people. The first few minutes were spent with Namine positioning Sora into an approtriate dance partner. Soon his hands were on her hips and her hands were on his shoulders. He fidgeted uncomfortably, even as they swayed to the beat of the currently playing music. Both were silent for a while before Namine started talking.

"You really like Riku, don't you?"

Sora went wide eyed, something inside him freezing as white hot panic seared him. His body was still moving to the music but the world seem to spin for a split second before everything righted itself again.

"I - don't know what you're talking about," Sora said as calmly as possible but there was a crack that Namine latched onto like a piranha.

"Sora, why are you so afraid?" she asked, head tilting to the side as if it would help make everything come into perspective.

Sora started shaking, and nearly stopped dancing. He felt like he should run but couldn't. Namine's blue eyes seemed to pierce him, as if she could see to his heart, where his feelings for Riku lay.

"It's alright, you can tell him," her gaze was soft as she whispered it, gaze imploring something that Sora was terrified to do.

Than Riku came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder as the song ended. Sora turned toward him slowly, and couldn't help the horror from creeping onto his face, feeling suddenly that Riku knew. Suddenly it was as if time had returned to its usual pace and Sora tore his hands away from Namine's waist, a strangled sound emerging from his throat as she let go of his shoulders, arms falling limply to her sides. Sora turned on his heel and shoved past Riku, just wanting to get away.

He ignored Riku's startled shout and barreled his way through the dancing masses. They had somehow winded up in the middle of the dancing high schoolers. Sora couldn't get away fast enough.

He ended up smashing into Roxas and Axel, throwing them apart as he plowed right between them in his haste to get away. At this point it was easy to ignore the angry shouts from behind him as he burst through the cafeteria's doors.

The entrance to the school was only four feet away and Sora covered that ground easily. He groaned in horror when he remembered that Luxord had driven him. He looked around frantically but there was no one. Coming to a descision was cut short when Riku suddenly burst through the school doors calling his name.

Without much thought, Sora started running. Instead of running and following the road however, he crossed the dirt street and plunged into the woods across from the school. He knew a short cut and while it would be signifigently harder to achieve during the night, he would be able to navigate if only by pure instinct. Sure enough, a half hour later, he arrived in the woods that lined his backyard.

A few scratches and bleeding cuts adorned his face and there was a few tears in his outfit but at this point he didn't care. He was about to step out of the woods and into his backyard when he remembered his parents would as questions when they saw him about why he had left the dance early. Sora really wasn't in the best of mood or shape to be dealing with that right about now.

Immediately his mind flashed to his thinking spot and without further thought, ran out of the woods, into his yard, and dashed across it. Sweat and blood dripped down his face and both stained his suit but he ignored it. His heartbeat drowned out his breathing and he worried breifly about overheating, heat stroke not far from his mind. It was pretty humid on the islands, even at night.

Thankfully his house was only six minutes from the beach and running like he was, it didn't take long to reach the small dock that held two row boats. Breifly he wondered if he was on a runners high as he untied on of the boats from the dock. Shaking his head as if that would knock the thoughts out, Sora yanked on last time on the rope tying the boat and breathed a sigh of relief when it came away easily.

After that, Sora collected his breath as he rowed to the play island, intending to visit the bent papou tree.

Sora sighed out of relief once again when he managed to tie the boat to the dock on the play island. After that it didn't take long to walk to the shack that led to the bridge to get to the spar area Riku and him used to play battle on all the time when they were younger.

These days, Sora loved to come up to the bent papou tree to think when things became to stressful. His favorite time was sunset but he didn't particularlly care when he traveled to the tree, as long as it was alone.

Sora leaped over the branch to settle on it tiredly, mind reeling. For several minutes, Sora stared blankly forward, looking forlornly at the water that looked blacker than ink as it was nearly a new moon, the gibous nearly non-existant. He could only numbly wonder if Namine had told Riku and how the hell Namine had known. The girl had always been weirdly ultra perceptive but Sora barely hung out with her, the only one Sora knew that spent any amount of quality time with Namine was . . .

'Kairi,'Sora thought grimly, frown tightening as his lips thinned, 'Namine and her are practically sisters, they're so close.'

Sora groaned and wondered how Kairi could have possibly betrayed him like that.

He was knocked out of his thoughts when he heard faint pounding that sounded suspicously like foot steps. Sora's brow furrowed in confusion as he stilled, his thoughts stopping in an effort to better hear and dechiper what it was exactly that he was hearing. That was when the footsteps sounded suddenly closer.

Sora leaped off the papou tree's bent trunk, more than a little startled. He glanced behind him to see Riku running off the bridge and onto the small area that was attached to the play island by bridge. Panic seemed to sieze control of him, holding his throat in a tightly clenched fist before he gasped out a huge swath of air.

"Sora!" Riku shouted and Sora ran.

He ran, intending to climb down the small ladder that was attached to the side of the sparring area but before he could even turn to climb down it, a heavy body hit into his from behind, sending them crashing into the shallow water.

For a full eight seconds, Sora laid with wide eyed shock on his front in the shallow water, a heavy weight splayed on his back but than he panicked from the lack of air. He struggled, twisting and clawing, desperate for air until suddenly, the weight was gone and someone was dragging him up.

He spluttered, chocking on some water that had entered his nose and mouth. He struggled in the arms that held him up, dragging air in through his mouth in large gulps after spitting out the water. He was turned and made no protest as he was too busy concentrating on breathing. His attention focused on the other when he realized it was Riku who was sitting him down in the water. Before he could protest, Riku sat too, the shallow water coming up to his hips as he sat cross legged.

"Why'd you run?" Riku asked so softly, Sora wasn't sure he had heard it.

But he did hear Riku and he looked down, finding the water up to his waist. He trailed his fingers in it and shrugged as he made designs in the water.

"I," a stutter that sounded a bit insecure, "didn't mean to make you run Sora," Riku said sincerly, making Sora look up at him despite his unwillingness.

"I don't know why I did," Sora offered weakly, giving a pathetic chuckle, trying to hide his nervousness.

Riku suddenly gripped Sora's chin so fast that Sora startled, nearly falling backwards.

"Yes, you do," Riku nodded as he said it, so self-assured that Sora couldn't help an involuntary shiver.

"I," Sora's voice failed him and Riku's eyes narrowed, seeming to suddenly see through Sora.

"Sora, how long have you had a crush on me?" Riku asked blandly and Sora felt his heart jolt, feeling as though it had ended up in his throat in one smooth motion, along with his stomach which seem to be convusling suddenly.

"What?"

"You heard me," Riku retorted sharply, seemingly to nearly hiss.

Sora was stunned and unsure what to do, not knowing whether he wanted to run or collapse in Riku's arms and ask forgiveness, even if it involved begging.

"For a long while," Sora moaned, feeling himself flush sharply as his gaze fell downwards.

For an agonizing moment there was perfect silence, not even the chirping crickets pierced Sora's paralyzing panic.

Instead of getting the expected slap however, his chin was jerked sharply forward and suddenly Sora was staring into Riku's eyes as he leaned forward, not even heisitating to dive in and press his lips softly to Sora's. They stayed like that a moment, Sora feeling as though his chest was being compressed and his stomach eased and his heart slipped easily back into place, which seemed impossible after they way it had ended up in his throat.

Before Sora had a chance to press back however, Riku slowly pulled back to give a smile that successful sucked any words Sora might of had out of him.

"Maybe, we can make this work," Riku murmered, barely a inch away from Sora's lips before swooping in again and Sora's eyelids slowly fluttered shut as he kissed back.