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The moon above Dark Meridian’s obsidian sea shone faintly, and Riku sat on the shore, looking out at the water just like he had many times before. King Mickey was scouting a path nearby, insisting on giving the younger Keyblade Master a chance to rest before moving on – or so he claimed.
Truthfully, Sora had developed an endearing if inconvenient habit of calling Riku at shorter and shorter intervals. Like, it was to the point that, bless his heart, Riku could expect a call every few minutes (that’s what it felt like, although Riku admitted the passage of time felt different down here). And while he was determined to complete their mission here, he also felt terrible about not picking up the phone when it was Sora, his closest friend, his light, his – uh, anyway.
Riku stretched his legs out, absentmindedly pushing his cuticles back while he waited. How is Sora getting anything done if he spends all his time on the phone? It impressed Riku to no end that Sora was saving all these worlds and solving everyone’s problems while spending most of his time trying to call him. He figured it must be another one of Sora’s unique gifts, something he could never truly emulate (that level of multitasking seemed exhausting, anyway).
Almost as if on cue, Riku’s phone buzzed, and he pointlessly tried to suppress a smile as he answered the call, remembering to hold the phone level with his face so Sora could see him. “Hey, Sora.”
“Riku!” Sora exclaimed, his hair spikes bobbing with the force of his excitement. “You finally picked up!”
His first instinct was to say I got away as soon as I could, but that struck even Riku as overly…husband-y. He felt his cheeks going pink and ducked his head, silently cursing his bangs for being too short to cover the evidence. “Yeah, we’re taking a break right now.”
“Hey. Hey. What’s wrong,” Sora said, never one to let him get away with that. “Did something bad happen? Where’s Mickey?”
You ask if something bad happened because I’m blushing. God, I love you. “Uh, he’s off scouting ahead. And I’m fine, I swear,” Riku said, looking back up. He had to remind himself to stop being so self-conscious, it’s not like Sora didn’t know. “How’ve you been holding up?”
“It’s your turn to go first, remember?”
Riku sighed. “Trust me, Sora, it’s not all that interesting out here. We haven’t found Master Aqua yet, or anything, really, other than a ton of Heartless.”
The worried frown on Sora’s mouth tugged at his heartstrings a bit, but Riku held his ground. “It’s not too much for you to handle, right?” Sora asked.
“Of course not, Mr. Battle-of-One-Thousand-Heartless,” Riku said, rolling his eyes. There wasn’t any sense in Sora spending all his worry on him, like he was with his time. “Do I look injured to you?”
Truthfully, that vaguely snake-y thing the king called a ‘wave of darkness’ had left him with a busted knee and several cuts between the hem of his pants and the top of his boots, but it wasn’t anything a few rounds of Cure couldn’t fix. The only real casualty, unfortunately, was the pant leg – Riku had dropped his emergency sewing kit a while ago in some kind of darkness swamp, so unless King Mickey knew a spell to repair clothes, it was just gonna stay ripped. But Sora didn’t need to know any of that.
Sora eyed him up and down, however effective that was over a video call. “You pass…for now. I hope you find Master Aqua soon. Promise me you won’t give up.”
“Never. So what’ve you been up to?”
Sora didn’t need any more prompting. He talked about this and that and Heartless and frying pans and what-have-you. Riku lost himself in Sora’s outlandish tales and in the curve of his smile, laughing at the occasional comment Donald would throw in. He couldn’t believe…well, he couldn’t believe he turned out to be such a huge sap. He had it bad.
“San Fransokyo is so great, Riku, you have to come visit as soon as you get back, Wasabi knows this place that makes the best tempura I’ve ever tasted, and…Riku, are you even listening?”
“San Fransokyo,” Riku said flatly. Something is off about this. “I thought you were in Radiant Garden? It’s only been a couple hours since we talked last.”
There was silence for a moment as Sora’s eyebrows shot up. “Riku…”
“What?” Riku smirked, covering up what he suspected was a growing sense of dread. “Cat got your tongue?”
Sora drew his eyebrows together and bit his lip, obviously unsure how to proceed. “It hasn’t been a few hours, Riku. It’s been a week.”
It felt like he’d been punched in the gut. The words rattled through Riku’s head as he realized the full implications of this. “A – a week?”
No wonder Sora called so often. And he’d been…he’d been ignoring him. Riku covered his eyes with his free hand and took a deep breath. So time is passing faster for Sora, and that’s how…that’s how so much stuff has been happening up there. I’m so stupid.
“I had no idea,” Riku said after a moment, noticing the breath Sora let out. “I would’ve picked up more often if I knew. For us, it’s like you’re calling every few minutes, so I can’t really…I mean…I could, but…”
Sora smiled again, and Riku hadn’t noticed how subtly on-edge Sora had been until now, when that edge finally subsided. “That’s a relief. I almost thought you were avoiding me, you know?” Never again. “Oh – before I forget! I asked Kairi whether she wanted to do Halloween at home or in Halloween Town this year, and…” Sora trailed off.
“And…?”
“You remember the costumes we were gonna do a couple years ago, before everything happened?” Sora asked, the look on his face getting decidedly more…devilish.
Riku blinked, then groaned. Yes, he remembered – how could he forget? The idea practically gave him jealousy hives for weeks (it wasn’t exactly the best year of his life). “I am not walking around the main island in a giant suit of armor.”
“Why not!?” Sora protested, drawing his eyebrows together. “I’m gonna be walking around in a red hooded coat and Kairi will have a box of tools, how’s that any different?”
“Red is your favorite color,” Riku countered, “and I’m sure Kairi has been looking for excuses to carry a throwing wrench around since she met us.”
Sora nodded vigorously. “And you’re always trying to protect us and everyone else! Soooo...”
“So I should cave to clanking around for hours? I’m not getting tricked into this. I’ll do Greed or maybe Mustang, but that’s it.”
“You’re only picking Greed because you already have clothes that work.”
“Yeah, so? Get Tidus to be Al.”
“Tidus is dead set on Havoc, Kairi said so.”
“Well at least you’re short enough to make a convincing Ed.”
“Hey!”
The argument continued like that for a few minutes, an unstoppable force against an almost-immovable object. Sora kept laying out his case for c’mon, be Al or at least Major Armstrong, PLEASE, and despite his opposition to Sora’s Halloween plans, Riku progressively felt warmer and fuzzier until he reached a point where he was practically oozing sap. Sora, his best friend. Sora, who forgave him when no one else would have, and who would do it all again if it meant saving him. Sora.
“I’m not done convincing you yet,” Sora said, “but I gotta go. Goofy’s giving me this look like there’s something more important I should be doing.”
Riku scoffed, a reaction born of years of hiding his feelings. Something told him it wasn’t hiding much this time. “More important than talking to me?”
It wasn’t just sappiness he was feeling. There was a little bit of courage there, too, along with the distinct feeling that if he didn’t say that particular thing now, he wouldn’t have another chance for a long, long time. Alright…here we go. I’m doing it. I’m saying it. To Sora.
“I know, right? But he’s kind of right, this time, and I don’t want Donald to get mad. So I’ll call back as soon as I can,” Sora said. “See you la—”
“Don’t…don’t hang up,” Riku interrupted, forcing the words out while he still had the chance. Say it. Say it. Say it. “I…” Hngnngnn. “I…”
After all this time and all the fights, Riku had finally allowed himself to just feel. Memories of words in sleeping worlds and Yen Sid’s tower flashed behind his eyes, and Riku cursed himself. Why is this so much harder to say to Sora’s face?
Sora shook his head and rolled his eyes. “…I love you too,” he said, having somehow read Riku’s mind.
“H-how—”
“It’s written all over your face, dumbass,” Sora answered, going so far as to wink at him. “Anyway, I really gotta go now. Pick up again soon, okay?”
“Definitely,” Riku sighed, before Sora blew him a kiss and ended the call. If only that were true, he thought, watching as the ocean of darkness was pulled by invisible tides. King Mickey would be back soon, and they’d undoubtedly be sucked into another long-winded battle with seventeen Darksides, or the king would get blown off a cliff by a gust of dark wind and Riku would have to go find him, or they’d finally find Master Aqua and any number of things would go horribly, horribly wrong. But Sora was counting on him to pick up. He’d just have to do his best.