[Complete] Suddenly a third Wheel
Who: Riku and Sora
When: BACKLOGGED to sometime before peace week.
Where: In the forest.
What: Riku has something to tell Sora and what better place to do it than in the forest fighting heartless?
Riku made it to the park entrance, before or after Sora was still to be seen, but his friend wasn't in sight yet. A bit of a smile crossed his face, and he let his head tip back to look up at the sky. Summer was close to ending-Normal kids would be going off to school, like they had done before. But here there wasn't any of that...and more importnatly, no worlds they had to save. He had his best friend, his Girlfriend, and for the first time in a long time felt...content, and happy. Maybe it wasn't so bad, Riku thought, letting his eyes fall closed for a moment, living here on Salkia Island.
"Riku!" Sora called out as he ran towards the silver-haired teen. He was coming from the apartments which clearly meant the younger boy was running late. He had a piece of toast hanging from his mouth so it was slightly obvious that Sora had lost track of time while eating.
"Hey!" Sora called out only slightly winded from the run. He grinned at Riku glad that the two were together and able to do things like this again. He'd missed it and the normalcy, or at least as close to normal as one could get on this island, was much appreciated. "And here I thought you'd be the one running late." He grinned placing his hands behind his head.
Hearing the other Keyblader call for him, Riku blinked, letting blue eyes open as he turned to face Sora, raising his eyebrows at the other. "Me? Fat chance." He faked-scoffed at the other, before folding his arms in front of him and then looking out into the park, and the forest beyond that.
He had a few plans for this little outing-First was to get rid of the Heartless Sora's Heartless had created, and with the two of them that would be pretty easy, considering how attracted to the keyblades they were. The other was to tell him about what had gone on here sience he had been missing--Obviously Sora couldn't remember things from the first time around, but that was ok, as long as he was back. Maybe they could get Namine to fix that though. "You ready?"
Sora nodded as he finished off the last bits of toast. Trully it shouldn't have been possible to eat anything that quickly. "Yeah!" Sora held his hand out at the keyblade appeared for a split second as Sora grinned before dismissing it from his hand. They weren't in the forest yet after all. "So, what exactly are we doing anyway?" Sora asked as he started to head towards the park and forest. He looked at the monkey bar's longingly. He remembered one time when he'd been a little kid and his mom had taken him to the park. The monkey bars had been his favorite even after he'd fallen and skinned his knee.
Riku fell into step with the other, used to this walk already and just letting instinct guide him. He had been doing this for some time, and went on these little excursions about twice a week. If nothing else it kept him in good shape. "Getting rid of the shadow heartless in the woods. We don't want a repeat of..." He trailed off. Wait, Sora didn't remember that. The Teenager backtracked a bit.
"To keep the heartless from overrunning the place. It happened once before." Not to mention the number of people who had been killed during that time, including himself. He didn't want that to happen again.
Sora looked over at Riku. He hadn't really thought about it before but it did make sense that there would be heartless in the woods as well as the monsters he'd heard so much about. After all, he'd seen Anti's video's on the network. "I guess my Heartless does a good job of making them huh?" Sora said. He tried to put a joking sound into his voice to make it sound like it was no big deal but truth was it bothered him. At least Anti was killing monsters rather than actual people.
"Riku," Sora started as they broke the line of trees. "When I was here before...did....what was...." He couldn't finish the sentence. He wondered what he'd been like, but that didn't make sense. If Sora had been here before how could he be anyone else but Sora?
Why didn't he remember any of it....?
The silverhaired teenager stayed silent for a moment, summoning Way to Dawn to his hand first, pulling the keyblade up in front of him and inspecting it before replying.
"...I don't know, this place is...strange. It puts us through things, brings us here without some kind of portal I can find...It doesn't even have a Keyhole I can sense." Riku let his hand drop back to his side, the tip of his keyblade grazing the ground before he adjusted it. "It's done a bunch of strange things, and you aren't the only one who doesn't remember being here." He'd seen a few people he knew mention they didn't know where they were, espically in the last month.
Riku looked at the other for a moment, frown on his face. "It was you though, and it's you now. I don't know how else to explain it."
Sora looked back over at Riku again. He glanced once at the Keyblade his friend weilded before drawing out his own. He looked over the kingdom key and thought for a bit before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a keychain and replacing it for the keychain that was already there. There was a light flash and the keyblade changed to Oblivion. "I guess I better start making new memories then." He grinned over at Riku pushing his darker thoughts to the back burner and letting them burn. "Right?"
He continued walking and looked absently at the tree's. Being in the forest reminded him of his arrival here, and he wondered how Yami was doing. "It's kind of creepy in here." Sora said offhandedly working at changing the subject.
Leave it to Sora, the other thought, to make light of things. He was glad though, because Riku wasn't really sure of how too in times like these. Letting his concentration go back to the forest around them Riku shifted a little to the left, moving their direction a little more North and toward the River closest to the town. "Afraid?" He snarked briefly, then became a little bit more serious. "It's definatly strange, but the keyblade works just as well on the not-heartless monsters out here too. "
Right, this was working out pretty well. Riku paused for a brief moment and let his eyes flick close, feeling darkness that only came from Heartless around them, but in the distance. "We're getting close."
"Hmph, afraid? Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Sora shot back a pout on his features. Like hell he was afraid! He'd been killing Heartless since...well techiniqually just as long as Riku...sorta. The brunette held his own keyblade up and looked at it in the speckled light of the forest. "Weird, but I know what you mean." Sora swung the keyblade idly watching the after glow of it's movements. "I was attacked by these cat things when I first got here. I wasn't sure if the keyblade would do anything, but at least Yami and I didn't end up dead." He grinned as he laughed. "Man that would have sucked!"
Riku hmmed a reply to Sora, but his attention had been drawn to the surrounding darkness, which was drawing closer and closer to them. Weak enemies, but a good number of them all the same. He was glad he had the other boy come with him-Things with heartless could always get out of hand quickly, and he didn't want to have to resort to using dark powers anymore. "Sounds like something you would do, get killed on your first day here." Riku smiled a little and nudged Sora with his elbow, a friendly gesture as well as a warning one. "Here they are, be ready."
And they came, the shadow heartless hiding just under the ground, using the shade of the many trees around them as cover. When the first one finally emerged, Riku pounced on it, knocking it aside with Way to Dawn.
"I would not have gotten kille--!" Sora's retort stopped as he saw the first few pairs of yellow eyes peak out from the foliage. He dropped into a ready stance beside Riku feeling oddly at peace despite the fact he was going into battle.
Sora lunged forward as the first heartless made their ways towards them through the shadows. On a more instictive level, he could sense were Riku was and made sure to stay out of the silver-haired teens way as he fought his own heartless. He swung Oblivion in wide arcs the dark keyblade cutting though his foes almost effortlessly.
Riku didn't say anymore, falling back on the easiness of fighting, going through the motions of what he had praticed with a wooden sword for years and all the training he had done with the keyblade in his hand now.
Sora was close behind in fighting, and the thought made the other smile. Last time they had fought together was against Xemnas, and it seemed just too easy to step out of the way when he needed to, to know when to move in the other direction to stay out of his way.
The heartless never stood a chance against them, this way.
It was true, the two made a perfect team. It really was too bad that it had taken the pair so long to come together like they did. But now that they were together, Sora couldn't have been happier.
He jumped back as a heartless lunged at him. He swung his keyblade and destroyed the small creature even as he was turning to slice another one that was coming up from behind. "Why are there so many of them?" Sora asked while he fought. Sure he knew Anti killed monsters a lot but this many? Better question was then where were all the monsters coming from in the first place?
It wasn't actually that many, forty or so, Riku would of guessed. But they were coming in fast because of the two keyblades instead of the usual one. He finished off another, before turning and using fire to light up an area underneath a tree, making sure nothing else was hiding under it. He was rewarded with a few deaths.
"Your heartless has to eat, then they have to eat as well. for every monster that loses a heart there is another heartless. Just a cycle." And it could quickly overrun the island, just like it had the one time before... He didn't want that to happen again more than anything.
Following Riku's lead, Sora concentrated and within secons a burst of fire surrounded him before quickly dissappearing as well as a few more heartless. "But where do all the monsters come from?" Sora asked as the stream of heartless died down for a brief moment.
He wiped his forehead though there wasn't much sweat on his brow. "Are these rabbit monsters or something?" He looked up to the tree's. You could barely see the sky teh foliage was so thick. "They have to be coming from somewhere..." Sora wondered just where that was, and if it was even possible for them to get rid of all the monsters. Then again, what would Anti have to eat?
Seeing a break in the heartless, possibly even having gotten rid of them in this area, Riku took a moment and stuck the tip of Way to Dawn into the ground, letting it stand there for a moment while he looked around. "No idea. Haven't really thought about it either."
Not the best thing to say, but he really hadn't looked into it. Between the island playing tricks on them and his own things going on here, Riku had barely thought about it. "Some of the other people here hunt them instead of working, though. Should probaply ask them."
Sora looked at Riku with an arched brow. "You haven't thought about it?" He shook out his hand as he allowed his own keyblade to dissappear for a short while. He didn't quite feel out of shape, but still, he should probably do this heartless hunting thing more often. "Well...I guess you're right. Heh maybe it could be fun, unless you're to scared to go with me." He grinned as he placed his hands on his hips clearly teasing Riku.
Him? Scared? Pfft oh Sora. "You were the one who thought the forest was creepy." He pointed out, grinning right back before reaching out and flicking the younger on the forehead. Way to Dawn vanished behind him, and Riku stepped back out of the way in case Sora tried to tackle him or something. Not to mention it was in the direction of the one other spot they needed to head to.
"Ah." Sora's hands instantly flew to his forehead as if he'd still be able to block the flick to his head. He glared at Riku. "Just 'cause I said it was creepy didn't mean that I was scared!" He snapped indignant at having been flicked. Riku was right to move out of the way as a split second later had Sora running at Riku ready to take him down to the floor. He'd show him who was scared!
Oh things never really did change, would they? Instead of waiting to the last second to sidestep the other, Riku instead turned and fled ahead of Sora with an almost laugh. "Suuure," He called back over his shoulder, suprised to see the other actually gaining on him. Wow, he really had gotten stonger...much more than Riku gave him credit for.
That was certainly true. Once, Sora would have still been feet behind Riku. Now it wasn't that hard to catch up with the older teen at all. He reached out for Riku hoping to grab his arm and pull him down. Too bad for Sora his distraction with Riku left him wide open to the root that was waiting to trip his big feet.
"Wha--Whoa!" Sora shouted as suddenly he wasn't reaching for Riku so much as he was the forest floor. His breath escaped him as he hit the hard ground, groaning a bit before turning to look in annoyance at the offending tree.
Hearing the other shout, Riku slowed and turned around, circling back on his friend, trying not to laugh at him. "You alright?" He called before making his way up to Sora, offering the other his hand to help him stand. "Last step's a big one."
Sora scowled even as he took Riku's hand. He let the older boy help him up but not without a major hit to his pride. Stupid tree... "Yeah I'm cool..." He dusted himself off. "Just so you know though," Sora started before shooting Riku a cocky look. "If it hadn't been for that tree, I would have caught you."
"Sure you would of." He replied, shooting the other an amused look before motioning him to follow again. They had gotten pretty close to the next area where he sensed a lot of darkness, despite the shortness of their little race. But before that...
"..." Riku sighed to himself, and mentally gathered the words. "Sora, I need to tell you something important."
The small scowl that was on Sora's face evaporated after awhile. He looked up into the trees and smiled a bit to himself when he saw a bird there. It wasn't one he'd seen before, but considering all the other weird things that were on the island as well as all that he'd seen of other worlds not alot surprised him anymore. Besides, if anything really bad jumped out at them he had Riku, and though it seemed silly and pansy-ish to think much less say, he knew his friend wouldn't let anything happen to him. Sora would do the same for Riku. Now that the two were back together, Sora wouldn't let anything get to Riku ever again.
"Huh." The brunette looked back to Riku pulled out of his thoughts by the older boys voice. "Yeah, what's up?" For some reason, Sora didn't like the tone in Riku's voice. It didn't exactly bode of good things, but it was Riku so, what could he possibly tell him that would be bad news? He decided it was just his imagination and the forest surrounding them. It didn't really feel as if anything good could come out of these woods anyway. "Finally going to admit I'm better than you?" He grinned.
"You wish." Came the automatically snarky retort, glad to have something normal to calm his nerves about saying this...But it shouldn't be too hard, Sora would understand.
After all, he and Kairi were his two best friends.
So he dicided to spit it out. "Kairi and I have been here for a really long time, and a lot of things have happened..." He trailed off a little, but forced himself to return to the subject. No whimping out, Riku. "We're kind of...Well, we are together. Have been for about two months now."
That said, he could only wait for a reply.
Sora blinked. Whether or not the Keybearer was not comprehending on purpose or because his brain didn't want to believe what he was hearing was a toss up. It wasn't a surprise when the first words out of Sora's mouth were, "Well of course you two have been together, Riku. You got here before me that makes sense."
"..." He resisted the urge to rub the bridge of his nose, knowing the other hadn't understood what he had really meant. "Not like that, Sora. We're dating."
And he knew how Sora had felt about Kairi, at one point anyway-They had always been competing for her. How well this would go over now that he had outright said it was what worried the Silver keyblader.
Sora was yanked quickly from the waters and dried off just as fast. Denial left him without a second thought and all the brunette could do was stare at his friend. "..." He didn't speak for a while as the rush of thoughts entering his head stopped him from doing such.
Riku and Kairi, dating? But...they were friends why...but then he'd always had a thing for Kairi when he was younger so...besides the two had been on this island for a lot longer than he had so of course the two would grow closer but...What about him? What about Sora?
"Wow..." Was the first real word out of the brunette's mouth, and as he continued speaking he was grateful the emotion color change thing was over. If it had still been going on Sora didn't doubt that he'd be a lovely shade of green and maybe even blue. At least this way Riku couldn't see the lie that was about to pass from his lips. "That's great." The Keybearer forced a smile the grin wide. "I'm happy for you two." But if that was true then why did he feel sick to his stomach about it?
Riku stopped and turned to face Sora, waiting for the other to say or do something. Hit him, yell, he wasn't sure, he didn't know. Blue eyes locked on blue, almost hesitant but willing. Sora was his best friend, Kairi was too...had been, but things had changed between them, horribly for the worse in the beginning before they had even gotten to this point.
And Riku knew he didn't deserve her. He didn't deserve either of them as friends, but they still remained that way, and he was beyond greatful for it.
But he's relieved to hear the other happy for them, not even noticing the little specks of doubt that might of torn through the other's voice. And his relief truely showed as well. "Thanks, I know it's sudden on top of everything else, but I didn't want to seem like we were hiding it from you." His best friend, the person who'd come after him and drag him from the darkness back into the light. The teenager was happy that he understood.
"Yeah, no problem!" Sora said forcing the grin to remain on his face. He took a few steps forward hoping that somehow if he started moving he'd wake up and find this wasn't a dream. For the first time on this island Sora felt alone. Back on Destiny Island's the trio's relationship had always been solid. Though it was true Riku and Sora often fought over Kairi, Sora had never been particularly serious about him dating his female friend. Really it was always more of a means to keep Riku away from her because Sora was scared that with the two of them together Sora would be cast aside. He hadn't really thought about it before but now that they were together that was how Sora felt. Yes he liked Kairi but over the year with all they'd been through she'd become something more of a sister and it had ended up being Riku that he was constantly chasing, but none of this made sense now. With the two here on the island, and together, what was Sora to do? His thoughts were swimming and the only way to keep them at bay were to keep that smile on his face and pretend that nothing was wrong.
"So...you two done anything yet?" Sora asked instantly wishing he'd just kept his mouth shut and that Riku had the decency not to say a thing if they had. He made a mental note to hit Donald, assuming he ever saw him again, for wisening the teen up to the ways of men and woman--not that it would have mattered since Sora wasn't a complete idiot.
Riku blinked, wondering what in the world Sora had meant by that question, but knowing his nature, as he had proved before the other had to pratically spell out the nature of his and Kairi's relationship, he chose the more innocent part of the question. "We went to the Masqurade party together here." That was safe enough to stay with, because even for as cool and collected as Riku was, he would of been flustered to even think about the question in the other meaning.
Not to mention they hadn't really done anything. As cool and charasmatic as he was Riku was still a teenager, and close to one who might of been called anti-social at one point. Must of had something to do with being trapped in Kingdom Hearts for months on end.
Motioning for the other to follow again, the Keyblader started off in the direction they were headed before this all had started.
"That's cool." Sora said glad that Riku hadn't answered the less innocent part of his question. Truth was he didn't want to know, and now that he knew about Riku and Kairi he wished he hadn't found out about it either. As they walked, Sora couldn't ignore the pain in his chest and each time he looked at Riku it only got worse. He wondered if things were ever going to be the same again...
When: BACKLOGGED to sometime before peace week.
Where: In the forest.
What: Riku has something to tell Sora and what better place to do it than in the forest fighting heartless?
Riku made it to the park entrance, before or after Sora was still to be seen, but his friend wasn't in sight yet. A bit of a smile crossed his face, and he let his head tip back to look up at the sky. Summer was close to ending-Normal kids would be going off to school, like they had done before. But here there wasn't any of that...and more importnatly, no worlds they had to save. He had his best friend, his Girlfriend, and for the first time in a long time felt...content, and happy. Maybe it wasn't so bad, Riku thought, letting his eyes fall closed for a moment, living here on Salkia Island.
"Riku!" Sora called out as he ran towards the silver-haired teen. He was coming from the apartments which clearly meant the younger boy was running late. He had a piece of toast hanging from his mouth so it was slightly obvious that Sora had lost track of time while eating.
"Hey!" Sora called out only slightly winded from the run. He grinned at Riku glad that the two were together and able to do things like this again. He'd missed it and the normalcy, or at least as close to normal as one could get on this island, was much appreciated. "And here I thought you'd be the one running late." He grinned placing his hands behind his head.
Hearing the other Keyblader call for him, Riku blinked, letting blue eyes open as he turned to face Sora, raising his eyebrows at the other. "Me? Fat chance." He faked-scoffed at the other, before folding his arms in front of him and then looking out into the park, and the forest beyond that.
He had a few plans for this little outing-First was to get rid of the Heartless Sora's Heartless had created, and with the two of them that would be pretty easy, considering how attracted to the keyblades they were. The other was to tell him about what had gone on here sience he had been missing--Obviously Sora couldn't remember things from the first time around, but that was ok, as long as he was back. Maybe they could get Namine to fix that though. "You ready?"
Sora nodded as he finished off the last bits of toast. Trully it shouldn't have been possible to eat anything that quickly. "Yeah!" Sora held his hand out at the keyblade appeared for a split second as Sora grinned before dismissing it from his hand. They weren't in the forest yet after all. "So, what exactly are we doing anyway?" Sora asked as he started to head towards the park and forest. He looked at the monkey bar's longingly. He remembered one time when he'd been a little kid and his mom had taken him to the park. The monkey bars had been his favorite even after he'd fallen and skinned his knee.
Riku fell into step with the other, used to this walk already and just letting instinct guide him. He had been doing this for some time, and went on these little excursions about twice a week. If nothing else it kept him in good shape. "Getting rid of the shadow heartless in the woods. We don't want a repeat of..." He trailed off. Wait, Sora didn't remember that. The Teenager backtracked a bit.
"To keep the heartless from overrunning the place. It happened once before." Not to mention the number of people who had been killed during that time, including himself. He didn't want that to happen again.
Sora looked over at Riku. He hadn't really thought about it before but it did make sense that there would be heartless in the woods as well as the monsters he'd heard so much about. After all, he'd seen Anti's video's on the network. "I guess my Heartless does a good job of making them huh?" Sora said. He tried to put a joking sound into his voice to make it sound like it was no big deal but truth was it bothered him. At least Anti was killing monsters rather than actual people.
"Riku," Sora started as they broke the line of trees. "When I was here before...did....what was...." He couldn't finish the sentence. He wondered what he'd been like, but that didn't make sense. If Sora had been here before how could he be anyone else but Sora?
Why didn't he remember any of it....?
The silverhaired teenager stayed silent for a moment, summoning Way to Dawn to his hand first, pulling the keyblade up in front of him and inspecting it before replying.
"...I don't know, this place is...strange. It puts us through things, brings us here without some kind of portal I can find...It doesn't even have a Keyhole I can sense." Riku let his hand drop back to his side, the tip of his keyblade grazing the ground before he adjusted it. "It's done a bunch of strange things, and you aren't the only one who doesn't remember being here." He'd seen a few people he knew mention they didn't know where they were, espically in the last month.
Riku looked at the other for a moment, frown on his face. "It was you though, and it's you now. I don't know how else to explain it."
Sora looked back over at Riku again. He glanced once at the Keyblade his friend weilded before drawing out his own. He looked over the kingdom key and thought for a bit before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a keychain and replacing it for the keychain that was already there. There was a light flash and the keyblade changed to Oblivion. "I guess I better start making new memories then." He grinned over at Riku pushing his darker thoughts to the back burner and letting them burn. "Right?"
He continued walking and looked absently at the tree's. Being in the forest reminded him of his arrival here, and he wondered how Yami was doing. "It's kind of creepy in here." Sora said offhandedly working at changing the subject.
Leave it to Sora, the other thought, to make light of things. He was glad though, because Riku wasn't really sure of how too in times like these. Letting his concentration go back to the forest around them Riku shifted a little to the left, moving their direction a little more North and toward the River closest to the town. "Afraid?" He snarked briefly, then became a little bit more serious. "It's definatly strange, but the keyblade works just as well on the not-heartless monsters out here too. "
Right, this was working out pretty well. Riku paused for a brief moment and let his eyes flick close, feeling darkness that only came from Heartless around them, but in the distance. "We're getting close."
"Hmph, afraid? Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Sora shot back a pout on his features. Like hell he was afraid! He'd been killing Heartless since...well techiniqually just as long as Riku...sorta. The brunette held his own keyblade up and looked at it in the speckled light of the forest. "Weird, but I know what you mean." Sora swung the keyblade idly watching the after glow of it's movements. "I was attacked by these cat things when I first got here. I wasn't sure if the keyblade would do anything, but at least Yami and I didn't end up dead." He grinned as he laughed. "Man that would have sucked!"
Riku hmmed a reply to Sora, but his attention had been drawn to the surrounding darkness, which was drawing closer and closer to them. Weak enemies, but a good number of them all the same. He was glad he had the other boy come with him-Things with heartless could always get out of hand quickly, and he didn't want to have to resort to using dark powers anymore. "Sounds like something you would do, get killed on your first day here." Riku smiled a little and nudged Sora with his elbow, a friendly gesture as well as a warning one. "Here they are, be ready."
And they came, the shadow heartless hiding just under the ground, using the shade of the many trees around them as cover. When the first one finally emerged, Riku pounced on it, knocking it aside with Way to Dawn.
"I would not have gotten kille--!" Sora's retort stopped as he saw the first few pairs of yellow eyes peak out from the foliage. He dropped into a ready stance beside Riku feeling oddly at peace despite the fact he was going into battle.
Sora lunged forward as the first heartless made their ways towards them through the shadows. On a more instictive level, he could sense were Riku was and made sure to stay out of the silver-haired teens way as he fought his own heartless. He swung Oblivion in wide arcs the dark keyblade cutting though his foes almost effortlessly.
Riku didn't say anymore, falling back on the easiness of fighting, going through the motions of what he had praticed with a wooden sword for years and all the training he had done with the keyblade in his hand now.
Sora was close behind in fighting, and the thought made the other smile. Last time they had fought together was against Xemnas, and it seemed just too easy to step out of the way when he needed to, to know when to move in the other direction to stay out of his way.
The heartless never stood a chance against them, this way.
It was true, the two made a perfect team. It really was too bad that it had taken the pair so long to come together like they did. But now that they were together, Sora couldn't have been happier.
He jumped back as a heartless lunged at him. He swung his keyblade and destroyed the small creature even as he was turning to slice another one that was coming up from behind. "Why are there so many of them?" Sora asked while he fought. Sure he knew Anti killed monsters a lot but this many? Better question was then where were all the monsters coming from in the first place?
It wasn't actually that many, forty or so, Riku would of guessed. But they were coming in fast because of the two keyblades instead of the usual one. He finished off another, before turning and using fire to light up an area underneath a tree, making sure nothing else was hiding under it. He was rewarded with a few deaths.
"Your heartless has to eat, then they have to eat as well. for every monster that loses a heart there is another heartless. Just a cycle." And it could quickly overrun the island, just like it had the one time before... He didn't want that to happen again more than anything.
Following Riku's lead, Sora concentrated and within secons a burst of fire surrounded him before quickly dissappearing as well as a few more heartless. "But where do all the monsters come from?" Sora asked as the stream of heartless died down for a brief moment.
He wiped his forehead though there wasn't much sweat on his brow. "Are these rabbit monsters or something?" He looked up to the tree's. You could barely see the sky teh foliage was so thick. "They have to be coming from somewhere..." Sora wondered just where that was, and if it was even possible for them to get rid of all the monsters. Then again, what would Anti have to eat?
Seeing a break in the heartless, possibly even having gotten rid of them in this area, Riku took a moment and stuck the tip of Way to Dawn into the ground, letting it stand there for a moment while he looked around. "No idea. Haven't really thought about it either."
Not the best thing to say, but he really hadn't looked into it. Between the island playing tricks on them and his own things going on here, Riku had barely thought about it. "Some of the other people here hunt them instead of working, though. Should probaply ask them."
Sora looked at Riku with an arched brow. "You haven't thought about it?" He shook out his hand as he allowed his own keyblade to dissappear for a short while. He didn't quite feel out of shape, but still, he should probably do this heartless hunting thing more often. "Well...I guess you're right. Heh maybe it could be fun, unless you're to scared to go with me." He grinned as he placed his hands on his hips clearly teasing Riku.
Him? Scared? Pfft oh Sora. "You were the one who thought the forest was creepy." He pointed out, grinning right back before reaching out and flicking the younger on the forehead. Way to Dawn vanished behind him, and Riku stepped back out of the way in case Sora tried to tackle him or something. Not to mention it was in the direction of the one other spot they needed to head to.
"Ah." Sora's hands instantly flew to his forehead as if he'd still be able to block the flick to his head. He glared at Riku. "Just 'cause I said it was creepy didn't mean that I was scared!" He snapped indignant at having been flicked. Riku was right to move out of the way as a split second later had Sora running at Riku ready to take him down to the floor. He'd show him who was scared!
Oh things never really did change, would they? Instead of waiting to the last second to sidestep the other, Riku instead turned and fled ahead of Sora with an almost laugh. "Suuure," He called back over his shoulder, suprised to see the other actually gaining on him. Wow, he really had gotten stonger...much more than Riku gave him credit for.
That was certainly true. Once, Sora would have still been feet behind Riku. Now it wasn't that hard to catch up with the older teen at all. He reached out for Riku hoping to grab his arm and pull him down. Too bad for Sora his distraction with Riku left him wide open to the root that was waiting to trip his big feet.
"Wha--Whoa!" Sora shouted as suddenly he wasn't reaching for Riku so much as he was the forest floor. His breath escaped him as he hit the hard ground, groaning a bit before turning to look in annoyance at the offending tree.
Hearing the other shout, Riku slowed and turned around, circling back on his friend, trying not to laugh at him. "You alright?" He called before making his way up to Sora, offering the other his hand to help him stand. "Last step's a big one."
Sora scowled even as he took Riku's hand. He let the older boy help him up but not without a major hit to his pride. Stupid tree... "Yeah I'm cool..." He dusted himself off. "Just so you know though," Sora started before shooting Riku a cocky look. "If it hadn't been for that tree, I would have caught you."
"Sure you would of." He replied, shooting the other an amused look before motioning him to follow again. They had gotten pretty close to the next area where he sensed a lot of darkness, despite the shortness of their little race. But before that...
"..." Riku sighed to himself, and mentally gathered the words. "Sora, I need to tell you something important."
The small scowl that was on Sora's face evaporated after awhile. He looked up into the trees and smiled a bit to himself when he saw a bird there. It wasn't one he'd seen before, but considering all the other weird things that were on the island as well as all that he'd seen of other worlds not alot surprised him anymore. Besides, if anything really bad jumped out at them he had Riku, and though it seemed silly and pansy-ish to think much less say, he knew his friend wouldn't let anything happen to him. Sora would do the same for Riku. Now that the two were back together, Sora wouldn't let anything get to Riku ever again.
"Huh." The brunette looked back to Riku pulled out of his thoughts by the older boys voice. "Yeah, what's up?" For some reason, Sora didn't like the tone in Riku's voice. It didn't exactly bode of good things, but it was Riku so, what could he possibly tell him that would be bad news? He decided it was just his imagination and the forest surrounding them. It didn't really feel as if anything good could come out of these woods anyway. "Finally going to admit I'm better than you?" He grinned.
"You wish." Came the automatically snarky retort, glad to have something normal to calm his nerves about saying this...But it shouldn't be too hard, Sora would understand.
After all, he and Kairi were his two best friends.
So he dicided to spit it out. "Kairi and I have been here for a really long time, and a lot of things have happened..." He trailed off a little, but forced himself to return to the subject. No whimping out, Riku. "We're kind of...Well, we are together. Have been for about two months now."
That said, he could only wait for a reply.
Sora blinked. Whether or not the Keybearer was not comprehending on purpose or because his brain didn't want to believe what he was hearing was a toss up. It wasn't a surprise when the first words out of Sora's mouth were, "Well of course you two have been together, Riku. You got here before me that makes sense."
"..." He resisted the urge to rub the bridge of his nose, knowing the other hadn't understood what he had really meant. "Not like that, Sora. We're dating."
And he knew how Sora had felt about Kairi, at one point anyway-They had always been competing for her. How well this would go over now that he had outright said it was what worried the Silver keyblader.
Sora was yanked quickly from the waters and dried off just as fast. Denial left him without a second thought and all the brunette could do was stare at his friend. "..." He didn't speak for a while as the rush of thoughts entering his head stopped him from doing such.
Riku and Kairi, dating? But...they were friends why...but then he'd always had a thing for Kairi when he was younger so...besides the two had been on this island for a lot longer than he had so of course the two would grow closer but...What about him? What about Sora?
"Wow..." Was the first real word out of the brunette's mouth, and as he continued speaking he was grateful the emotion color change thing was over. If it had still been going on Sora didn't doubt that he'd be a lovely shade of green and maybe even blue. At least this way Riku couldn't see the lie that was about to pass from his lips. "That's great." The Keybearer forced a smile the grin wide. "I'm happy for you two." But if that was true then why did he feel sick to his stomach about it?
Riku stopped and turned to face Sora, waiting for the other to say or do something. Hit him, yell, he wasn't sure, he didn't know. Blue eyes locked on blue, almost hesitant but willing. Sora was his best friend, Kairi was too...had been, but things had changed between them, horribly for the worse in the beginning before they had even gotten to this point.
And Riku knew he didn't deserve her. He didn't deserve either of them as friends, but they still remained that way, and he was beyond greatful for it.
But he's relieved to hear the other happy for them, not even noticing the little specks of doubt that might of torn through the other's voice. And his relief truely showed as well. "Thanks, I know it's sudden on top of everything else, but I didn't want to seem like we were hiding it from you." His best friend, the person who'd come after him and drag him from the darkness back into the light. The teenager was happy that he understood.
"Yeah, no problem!" Sora said forcing the grin to remain on his face. He took a few steps forward hoping that somehow if he started moving he'd wake up and find this wasn't a dream. For the first time on this island Sora felt alone. Back on Destiny Island's the trio's relationship had always been solid. Though it was true Riku and Sora often fought over Kairi, Sora had never been particularly serious about him dating his female friend. Really it was always more of a means to keep Riku away from her because Sora was scared that with the two of them together Sora would be cast aside. He hadn't really thought about it before but now that they were together that was how Sora felt. Yes he liked Kairi but over the year with all they'd been through she'd become something more of a sister and it had ended up being Riku that he was constantly chasing, but none of this made sense now. With the two here on the island, and together, what was Sora to do? His thoughts were swimming and the only way to keep them at bay were to keep that smile on his face and pretend that nothing was wrong.
"So...you two done anything yet?" Sora asked instantly wishing he'd just kept his mouth shut and that Riku had the decency not to say a thing if they had. He made a mental note to hit Donald, assuming he ever saw him again, for wisening the teen up to the ways of men and woman--not that it would have mattered since Sora wasn't a complete idiot.
Riku blinked, wondering what in the world Sora had meant by that question, but knowing his nature, as he had proved before the other had to pratically spell out the nature of his and Kairi's relationship, he chose the more innocent part of the question. "We went to the Masqurade party together here." That was safe enough to stay with, because even for as cool and collected as Riku was, he would of been flustered to even think about the question in the other meaning.
Not to mention they hadn't really done anything. As cool and charasmatic as he was Riku was still a teenager, and close to one who might of been called anti-social at one point. Must of had something to do with being trapped in Kingdom Hearts for months on end.
Motioning for the other to follow again, the Keyblader started off in the direction they were headed before this all had started.
"That's cool." Sora said glad that Riku hadn't answered the less innocent part of his question. Truth was he didn't want to know, and now that he knew about Riku and Kairi he wished he hadn't found out about it either. As they walked, Sora couldn't ignore the pain in his chest and each time he looked at Riku it only got worse. He wondered if things were ever going to be the same again...