(Untitled)

[tall_dark_and]

Riku is outside the bar, in his civvies. He's holding a wooden practice sword, and using it to batter up what seems to be intended to be a person. The contraption is made of sticks and bounds together with what seems to be mummy-like red stripes of cloth.

It's holding together pretty well, but from the looks of it, he'll split it apart soon.

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[aerora]

Sora is full from dinner, and decides to go outside for a little bit of a walk. Sitting in a booth all evening isn't exactly his idea of fun, anyway, and it's been a while since he's been outside.

La la la.

He is quite oblivious to Riku right now.

[tall_dark_and]

Riku's not oblivious to him. He's spent too long trying to keep track of Sora to lose the ability to sense his presence now. "You might want to watch your step," he says, without turning to look at Sora; he kicks a fallen branch in the other guy's direction.

[aerora]

Sora freezes mid-step and looks up to see Riku ahead.

A grin immediately appears on his face and he rushes to see him, stepping over the fallen branch, waving.

"Hey, Riku!"

[tall_dark_and]

"Hi," Riku says shortly, gruffly.

He's a bit pissed right now, and may not make for great company. He should try to attempt for Sora, but sometimes, the fact Sora exists makes him all that more pissed off.

We'll see which way it goes.

[aerora]

Ouch.

"What're you up to?" he asks, crossing his arms. He gestures to the mummified mannequin.

[tall_dark_and]

A smirk curves the edges of Riku's lips, now. He pushes the sword into the dirt, leaning on it. "Guess," he says, because it really should be obvious. The word also carries a hint of a challenge - Sora can serve better in a duel than an immobilized dummy.

[aerora]

"Who're you mad at?" Sora tries instead, watching Riku carefully. He doesn't move forward.

It's true that Sora is oftentimes dense, but he knows Riku too. He's known Riku all his life...knows that Riku's angry about something, or angry with someone. He'll have to try his best to be a good friend.

[tall_dark_and]

"Doesn't matter," Riku says. "Maybe Nobody. Maybe everybody."

He shrugs. Now he's mad at himself, too, for taking all this out on Sora - but that just means it'll be harder to stop.

What a friend, he thinks, about himself.

[aerora]

Sora nods slowly, then glances back at the mannequin, trying to find some familiarity from it, a clue. Anything.

He turns back to Riku.

"I guess it has something to do with the stuff you can't tell me, huh?"

[tall_dark_and]

Riku clenches his teeth at that.

"Or maybe it has something to do with the fact you keep -asking- about it," he snaps.

[aerora]

...

Well, Sora has to admit, he really didn't expect Riku to say that.

Clamping his mouth shut, Sora crosses his arms. Clearly he isn't really gonna get anywhere talking to him. He doesn't seem to be in the mood to talk.

In fact, he's never actually seen Riku this mad before.

"Maybe I'll talk to you later," he says, finally.

[tall_dark_and]

Riku's mood falls down further at this. He's not sure whether to feel ashamed or mad at Sora - or both. A part of him recognizes how ridiculous all this is, but the other half... well, to that part, it seems like Sora's just walking away.

As per the usual practice, really.

"Whatever," he says. "You don't have to deal with me anymore."

[aerora]

This makes Sora stop before he can even begin to leave.

"Don't have to deal with you anymore?" he repeats. He frowns. "What do you mean by that?"

[tall_dark_and]

You shouldn't have to, Riku thinks.

"Forget about it," he says out loud, and takes a few steps away.

[aerora]

Sora blinks. "Hey -- wait!"

Okay, so Riku's mad about something. But now...now Sora's curious, and he wants to help (he always did; he just didn't know how) but he isn't sure whether Riku will accept it from him.

He catches up to the other boy and grabs his arm. "I wanna know," he tells him firmly. His heart is pounding; he won't let Riku know he's ... afraid.

[tall_dark_and]

Riku gives Sora a sharp look, and tries to shake the boy's hand off of him. "You always want to know everything," he says, his voice a little lower. "But why concern yourself? It's not as if you'd understand anything."

He taps Sora on his forehead, as if to accentuate the point.

"Go back to your island and concern yourself with pretty girls. This is big boy stuff."