Chapter Text
God, was he tired.
Sora flopped onto the bed like a rock, half asleep before his head hit the pillow. For a one way trip to the magic tower, the universe decided to throw as much in their way as possible; turbulence, space heartless, land heartless, losing half his luggage off the edge of the world, and topping it off by getting chewed out by Yen Sid and told to report back to him “at the break of dawn”, which would be in… maybe four hours.
This sucked so bad already.
And Riku didn’t seem nearly as peeved, simply helping Sora arrange what was left of his luggage before peeling off to sleep. How that guy did it, Sora would truly never know.
Jealousy would get him nowhere, and neither would staying awake, if he didn’t want to be a zombie by the time he had to see Yen Sid. So he shuffled further into the (admittedly very comfortable) sheets and waited for sleep to take him away.
…and waited.
….and waited.
…..and kept waiting.
He tossed and turned, flipped his pillow, adjusted the sheets, counted sheep and heartless and Donalds in his head and nothing was working! He was so, SO tired, but his pulse just wouldn’t calm down, and his mind couldn’t stop working. It was like he was waiting for something. Like there was something he'd wanted his whole entire life, and it was right in front of him, just out of reach. But the only thing he wanted to reach for was sleep!
The annoyance was building quick in his chest, and he rolled onto his back, eyes screwed shut. A part of him wanted to give up and do something, but he was still so, so tired. Why couldn’t he just SLEEP?!
The door clicked open.
He didn’t have to open his eyes to know who it was. Only Riku was crazy enough to still be awake at this hour on purpose.
He didn’t say anything, and Sora heard the door very gently click shut.
Did Riku leave something here? The thought surprised him, since he’d sorted his belongings the moment they were in the building, but if he’d dropped a sock or something, he wouldn’t barge into Sora’s room at the literal witching hour looking for it, would he?
It was probably something important, then, and Sora should offer to help find it, but…
Nope, he was not moving from this spot. He'd been laid here for who knows long already, and he was not giving up the ghost on the chance to get any amount of sleep before what was sure to be a grueling day. Even if it was fruitless in the end, he can say he didn’t give up! If Riku needed his help, he’d wake him up himself!
Which, for a second, it looked like he was going to do, as he stopped in front of Sora at the side of the bed.
Sora braced himself to play the whole song and dance of being woken up and complaining about it, less because he was that tired and more because it annoyed Riku.
But Riku wasn’t waking him up. He wasn’t moving anymore, either. Sora could only guess that he was… staring at him, in the dark.
He. Wasn’t sure what to make of that. Should he… should he say something? Pretend to wake up now?
Before he could make a move, a hand covered his mouth.
He didn’t move a muscle. What the heck was Riku thinking? Was- was there something in the room he had to be silent about?! It’s not like he was snoring or something-
His thoughts were cut off by the feeling of hair tickling his forehead, then a gentle puff of air, and then, then of Riku's nose brushing the tip of his own.
Riku’s face was on.
He’d moved his mouth over to.
Riku was. Kissing his hand.
Which was.
Over Sora’s mouth.
.
No sooner had he processed this than Riku suddenly jerked away with a gasp, and Sora couldn’t even move before he’d rushed out and slammed the door closed.
His eyes flew open and he sat up slowly.
…
…Did Riku just KISS HIM?!?!?!?!
He knew, technically, it was his hand, and not actually a kiss, but, like, . ????????!?!?!?!?!!?!??
All fatigue was forgotten as Sora felt something like hysteria bubbling in his head- he covered his mouth (that Riku’s hand was just on, his mind very unhelpful supplied) and breathed deeply. This was Riku, he couldn’t just burst out and ask for answers or he might run away. Again.
But that was the thing! It was Riku! His best friend! Even beyond the fact that Sora wasn’t a girl and neither was Riku (unless there was something Riku REALLY needed to tell him, but it couldn’t be that, he thinks, he’s pretty sure), the idea that Riku, RIKU, his very best friend since childhood, the same kid he’d played and fought with and failed tests and learned swimming and spent his entire life with, would want to… would like…?
His mind was racing as fast as his heartbeat. Because this was crazy. INSANE! It, it couldn’t be like that, could it? Sora had never, ever known a man that didn’t fall for a woman, or the other way around for that matter, so maybe… Maybe Riku was seeing if that was possible? He was always testing rules and their limits, but testing human nature like this felt like trying to defy gravity.
(Which Sora could do. Pretty easily.)
And maybe- maybe Riku was different like that. He was already one of a kind with how he’d handled darkness without letting it take him over, this was small potatoes in comparison. But then, why would he… like Sora? It didn’t- okay, it made some sense. A lot of sense. Too much sense, he was realizing from his quick recollection of the past year, but…
Maybe he’d misunderstood! Maybe Riku was protecting him from swallowing a spider! Or, or he was checking his temperature! Or maybe, maybe he meant to tell Sora something and decided to save it for the morning since he was clearly asleep already!
Yeah, that had to be it. Good old considerate Riku.
This was useless.
Sora groaned into his hands as quietly as he could, as much as he wanted to scream into them. Riku, by some mechanism, kissed him. Not actually, but was pretending to an inch from his face. Which was now absolutely burning. The only earthly reasons he could consider were that Riku was just that curious, or…
Or he… liked Sora.
Why did he flinch away, then?
The warm, embarrassed feeling was settling into a cold dread in the pit of his stomach. He was missing something, and he did not like it. Riku wasn’t telling him things. Again. And he wanted to respect that, but just from the little he knew about people liking each other (or… no, it couldn’t be love, that’d… that’d be a lot), it was a really, really big deal to the person feeling it.
And he couldn’t help the thought that followed; was Riku not happy?
If he couldn’t tell Sora outright how he felt, but would actually go out of his way to pull something like this, then… Then-
A strangled voice smashed his train of thought to bits. He froze.
After a moment, he heard it again, muffled by the door, but unmistakably the sound of someone retching.
Was that Riku?
Was he vomiting?!
Sora shimmied out of his blankets as quietly as he could and cracked the door open. The bright light of the hallway hurts his eyes, but he squinted against it well enough to make out Riku’s form hunched over the trash.
“Oh no,” he muttered, rushing to Riku’s side. “Are you okay?”
Riku’s head shot up like a bullet, eyes wide as saucers. “S-Sora?” He croaked, and coughed wetly before he straightened. “Sorry, I- eugh- I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“Don’t worry about that, I-“
The lump of dread jammed into his throat. If he said he was awake, Riku would… he didn’t know what Riku would do frankly, this was so unprecedented. But if he was vomiting over this, Sora was treading into very, very dangerous waters.
If he didn’t tell Riku he was awake, though, it would eat at him. He was no good at keeping secrets!
Riku was looking at him weird. God, he had to tell him, honesty was best policy, but if he ran away from this…
Sora grabbed the edge of his arm warmer. “I was...I was awake, Riku,” he finally said.