Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Future Tense, Unspoken Emotions ❯ Slow Acceptance ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

4.

Both awoke before dawn. Dressed themselves and headed back to the main island. Both parted ways with a chaste kiss and entered their beds as if they had been there all night. Completely satisfied.

These midnight trysts carried on for months. Meeting late and heading home just before the sun rose.

No one knew about their secret meetings….almost no one.

Six months came and went. Both Sora and Riku had celebrated their birthdays as best they could being that they couldn‘t be together. Both turning sixteen and seventeen respectively, on the same day no less.

Sora sat on his own once again. He hid behind the old oak at school again. And once again he sat drawing. This time, he drew Cloud and Sephiroth.

Neither him nor Riku had sensed them in the past few months.

Giving up on his sketches, Sora sat and stared out at nothingness. After a while he peered past the tree to spot Riku sitting on his own at the stands beside the sports fields. He sat alone there every day.

Both were recluses at school. Neither accepted but neither rejected. They couldn’t leave. They had no choice but to stay.

Sora fingered the crown chain he always wore. He felt strange somehow. He could describe it as feeling ill. His left shoulder ached. It was a constant dull, cramping ache. It felt as though something was trying to break through the skin at times. He rubbed and rubbed at his shoulder to try and ease the pain, but nothing worked.

Shutting his eyes and resting his head against the bark of the tree, he tried to drift off to sleep. He almost succeeded over the pain until a piece of paper landed on his face.

------

Riku once again sat alone. His class mates didn’t have the time for him. Not that he wanted their time anyway. To them, not only was he gay, but, he was a killer with a weird looking sword.

He had been sparring on the track one day on his own when a group of boys from his year spotted him. Once again, he was labelled a freak. They didn’t understand what the Keyblade was and Riku certainly wasn’t going to justify himself to them.

Sora on the other hand had been more careful. He only trained when he skipped class. He only trained when no one else was about. He took time to check for people staring.

Riku trued to concentrate on the book he was meant to be studying for his English exam. Beowulf. However, he just couldn’t get into it. Most of it was in a totally different language.

He peered over at the old oak to see Sora’s shadow jutting past the thick bark. The school was well informed the two of them had to be kept at a distance so he couldn’t even nonchalantly wander over.

“Ah this is fucking shit.” Riku growled to himself.

Who cares if he was spotted talking to himself. He didn’t give a toss.

He winced slightly at the sharp twinge of pain spreading across his right shoulder. This same dull ache had been coming and going for the past few months now. Riku placed his hand under the shoulder of his shirt to feel. His shoulder burned white fire. Pressing down on the heated flesh, he sucked in a pained breath.

“Ugh….what the hell’s going on?”

He didn’t know what was causing this but wished to hell it would go away.

The pain slowly began to subside. He shut the boring book and placed it beside him. Leaning forwards and placing his elbows on his knees, he stared out at nothing in particular.

The scars on his right wrist caught his attention. He usually covered them. He forgot today. Thankfully, Riku had not cut himself since that night. Maybe he was too scared of death. Maybe he was too scared of seeing who he believed was Sephiroth.

“I’m just….scared….” He whispered to himself.

Movement near him snapped the silver haired male out of his depressed state. He looked around to see no one near him. He looked down to where his book lay to see a small piece of paper folded on top of it.

He didn’t really recognise the handwriting but surmised it must have been Sora in a hurry. To answer his query, he looked to see Sora’s shadow gone from behind the tree.

“Hmmm, fair enough.”

------

Both males walked towards their final destination from opposite ends of the school. Sora reached the oak first. He stood almost nervously waiting on Riku.

“Hey Sora. What did you want to meet me here for? I thought we were meeting later?”

“What? I didn’t ask to meet you. I thought you asked to meet me?! See? I got this note….from you?”

He held the note in front of Riku’s face.

“Oooooookaaaaaay….I have pretty much the same note….if you didn’t do it….I certainly didn’t. Who did?”

“I did.”

Both youths whipped their heads round at the sound of the soft female voice.

“Kairi!” They both yelled.

She walked slowly towards them with her head bent low. Neither could see her eyes. She couldn’t look into their eyes.

“What the fuck did you call us here for?!” Riku hissed out while summoning Way To Dawn.

Sora glared at her and summoned Ultima Weapon.

“I can do that too you know.”

Kairi’s blade appeared in her outstretched hand. The very same blade Riku had given her months before.

“Well? We’re waiting.”

“I….I came to apologise.”

He blade vanished into thin air. Tears glistened down her cheeks. Both males banished their weapons. A part of them wanted to hear more.

“I have been watching you two for some time now. I watch you being alone at school. At home. Actually….everywhere. The only time I see the two of you genuinely happy is when you sneak out to….meet each other at night.”

“You didn’t?!”

“Just once….I followed Sora the night after you came back. I wanted to know where he was going. I saw the two of you together. I heard the words and actions you shared and I realised….they are for real. They are true.”

Both males blushed slightly at Kairi’s boldness. The red head continued but kept her azure eyes averted.

“I saw the two of you exchange the Paupou Fruit and finally knew I had no chance whatsoever with Sora.”

“You never did Kairi.”

“I know that now. And….I’m so sorry I put the two of you through so much. I had no idea the pupils here would react the way they did. I want to make amends. I want to set things right. Please? Sora….Riku? Give me this chance.”

Riku finally found his voice. “Although you were a peeping tom, some….no, all of what you say is true. You have put us through hell and back and made our lives here miserable. The two of us can’t even look at each other. We didn’t even get to spend our birthday’s together because of you. How can we have a relationship when we can’t be seen talking? I don’t think the past can be changed….”

Riku looked into her eyes. Tears flooded from their depths. He could feel she truly was sorry.

“However….if it’s ok with Sora? You could try and make amends.”

“How? I will do anything. I miss you two.”

“Lets try and get along just like we used to. Like nothing’s changed.”

“Ummm, Riku? A lot has changed. the fact that the two of us are together….well trying to be is the change….idiot.”

“You know what I mean Sora!”

Kairi looked up at the males standing less the five feet in front of her. She saw Riku reach out to twine Sora’s fingers in his own.

“Ok guys. I want to come back. I can’t apologise enough for everything I have done to the two of you.”

“Actions speak louder than words Kairi.” Sora whispered as he let go of Riku’s hand and walked away.

------

The next day. Sora, Riku and Kairi sat behind the old oak.

“What if someone see’s us Riku? The school wont let us.”

“Fuck’m!”

All three sat in an awkward and uneasy silence. Kairi smoothed down her skirt again and again.

Riku played with his hair until it matted and tangled.

Sora sat twiddling his thumbs and fidgeting all over the place.

“Guys? I wanna tell you about a dream I had a few weeks ago….it was awful. Like something out a worst nightmare.”

Both males looked at each other with a terrible sense of foreboding.

“I stood in the middle of a war….well, actually it was more of a slaughter. I saw many people. Many of those in your sketch book actually.”

She said while eyeing up the pictures of Leon, Tifa, Cid, Yuffie and Merlin.

“I was standing in the middle of the fighting. I couldn’t summon my Keyblade to help. I stood screaming for the fighting to stop. I saw two knights fall to the ground. Their helmets fell off and I saw….you two.”

Tears made their way down her rosy cheeks.

“I watched as three other ran over to your sides. Two of them were men….they looked a lot like you. The third was….me. Both of you died and I couldn’t do anything to stop it! I couldn’t watch but at the same time, I couldn’t look away. I screamed and screamed….then I woke up. What does it mean?”

Both males looked at her with downcast eyes and slowly told her everything.

They told her about Cloud and Sephiroth and how they were their fathers. Their deaths and now the three different fates. They told how Riku tried to kill himself through sheer fear and how he was miraculously saved.

Kairi sat wide eyed, staring at them.

“The future will be upon us very soon and we have to stand up and fight it! I refuse to bow down to any of these fates!” Riku shouted whilst pointing at himself, then Sora, than Kairi.

“If I have to become darkness itself to defeat this. Then so be it.”