Author's Note: Next one up! Thanks to Crescent Riku and Cielshadow17 for reviewing. It's always nice to know an author's work is appreciated, and it honestly made me update a bit quicker.:-)

On another note, I drew art! It's nothing much- I'm not an artist, just a habitually bored doodler, but it was inspired by LoquitorLatinae's fantastic story, Oathkeeper's Dawn. The link is on my profile page (which got a facelift!-it now contains lyrics to the song which this story gets its name from) so go check it out if you can

Somewhere in the Between

ziling

Happily Ever After

Everything on the island seemed to glisten with a brilliance that had previously gone unnoticed. How ironic that it took the darkest night eclipsing his soul for Riku to finally realize how radiant the light of the sun truly was.

He really shouldn't have been contemplating that at the moment, though. Not with Sora about to kill himself trying to climb the paopu tree.

"Maybe you should come down from there," Kairi called from her place next to Riku, eyes shaded against the sun as she watched Sora determinedly try to commit suicide. The silver-haired teen snorted softly, but moved so as to be underneath the other boy if the worst did happen. Sora was actually doing fairly well, though, climbing with such dexterity that Riku wouldn't have been surprised to hear that the Keyblade Master had done so before. With Sora, one could never just assume.

"I'm almost there. Don't worry so much, Kairi." One could practically see the fierce look of concentration that must have been pasted on the teen's face, brows furrowed and tongue poking slightly between his teeth as he made his way towards the last paopu fruit on the tree.

Riku trusted Sora's abilities explicitly- after all, the boy was the legendary Keyblade Master. He had fought the darkness spanning worlds to once again free them of what evil lurked within, with only a duck and a dog at his side. Even though he was young, he was unmatched.

Except for the fact that off of the battle field, the guy was a walking disaster.

"Shit!" The word tumbled out of his mouth as Sora made a last swipe at the dangling paopu fruit, which predictably caused him to lose his all ready precarious grip. Riku didn't have time to think before the other boy came hurtling downwards. Though Sora was not, and would never be, big, he was still all lithe muscle, the force of which sent both teens crashing to the ground.

"Are you two all right?" Kairi came racing over, landing on her knees next to the pile of moaning flesh. Twin groans of agony met her concern.

"I will be once someone gets his chubby self off of me."

"You're totally fatter than I am."

Kairi shook her fall of red hair, smiling sweetly in relief. "Well, I know you guys are definitely okay if you're all ready arguing." She extended a slim hand to Sora, who accepted with a somewhat rueful grin.

When the two boys pulled apart, there was a slight squish and a feeling of wetness. Riku could only guess at what was smeared all across his front.

"Riku, you're my best friend and all," Sora said slowly, blue eyes unusually solemn as he stared down at the other, "But no matter how much I like you guys and want our destinies to be intertwined and stuff, I'm gonna have to draw the line at licking paopu fruit from off your stomach."

"So, you want to find your true love," Riku says, his voice as bland as day old bread. The dark-haired man standing in front of him gives a regal nod of confirmation, the medals and other shiny bobbles pinned to the immaculate white uniform clanging softly with the movement. Riku looks down at the object he's holding in his hands.

"And you have a shoe." Another nod.

"You want to find you true love using a shoe." The guy is handsome, Riku has to admit, especially if you tend towards the prince-charming types. Which Riku doesn't, for the very reason that there doesn't seem to be anything of much importance occurring behind those strikingly attractive but slightly vacant eyes.

"Yes, of course," the man replies, gesturing imperiously for Riku to return the shoe. The prince, for he can be nothing but while wearing all the gleaming trappings of royalty, cradles the glass slipper as it if is the most precious thing in the world. Considering the measures he is taking in order to find one girl, it probably is.

"And just how do you plan to do that?" The question seems to brighten the prince, and his entire countenance seems to gain a dream-like quality to it.

"Last night, the woman I love suddenly left the Royal Ball, the only trace of her being this glass slipper. By having every eligible maiden in the kingdom try it on, I will be sure to find her."

Riku feels a headache beginning. He resists the urge to run his hands through the long, silver strands of his hair in frustration. "Are you serious? You saw the girl only once and you suddenly love her? You don't even know what she looks like if you're using a shoe to find her! Besides that, do you know how many women of marrying age there probably are in this country? Even if you go around and ask every single one of them to try on that damn slipper, there's got to be more than one who has the same shoe size. You're never going to find her that way."

"You seem to have quite a bit of doubt for someone so young."

Riku feels that that is a rather unjust thing to say. He's eighteen now, and the prince cannot be that much older. "It's not doubt if it's true."

"I know that I will find her because it was fate that brought us together that night. It was fate that left her glass slipper upon the palace steps for me to find." He feels the prince's eyes upon him, filled with an achingly familiar sense of conviction and determination that causes the stone resting upon his chest to burn coldly. "Fate works in mysterious ways, ways that we know naught of. Fate intertwines our destinies together. That is why I knew I loved her at first sight, and why I know that I will find her once again."

Riku just stares. The prince has to be a complete sap, and he says just that.

After all, how can destinies be intertwined because of such a simple reason? Only fools and children would put so much faith in something like that. In nothing but a fairytale.

"I still can't believe you expect to find her using a shoe."