Chapter Text
In Sora’s defense, he didn’t mean to fall out of the sky.
He didn’t even mean to fall into a pair of strong, muscular arms. The entire thing was completely accidental, but, well, he wasn’t going to complain about that .
The night had started like any other, with Sora among the clouds with Ven, getting ready to hang the stars in the sky.
Truth be told, hanging the stars wasn’t a task Sora particularly enjoyed. Still, he liked hanging out with Ventus, the wind spirit tasked with helping him, so he didn’t think it was too bad a gig. It was fun to throw the stars around, while Ven laughed and tried to chide him for messing up their intricate patterns.
“The humans will notice,” Ven would try to tell him, but Sora just laughed. Ven was the one always sneaking out to meet with a servant of the Underworld when he thought Sora wouldn’t see, so his advice was always taken with a grain of salt.
As it turned out, Ventus was right about the humans. Which was how Sora found himself falling out of the sky, wings pulled into his back, and scalding anger in his blood.
It had started as a good night , he told himself, something like fear piercing his heart. How quickly it all went to shit.
The wind rushed around him and he wondered if hitting the ground would be enough to kill him. Then again, he wasn’t even sure if he could die. He knew that old age and disease would never get him, but smacking into the ground at the speed of light? Who knew? Sora didn’t really want to find out.
As the stars and clouds flew past him, Sora reached a hand out, a pathetic attempt to try and grasp onto something to keep him from hurtling towards the Earth at a thousand miles per hour.
He thought he felt a hand grasping his and gasped, but it was gone just as quickly as he felt it. Still, he would know the weight of that hand in his anywhere.
Sorry, Ven , he thought, sadly, Guess I just doubled your workload.
To be honest, Sora felt that the fact that he was being punished, being sent down to Earth, was entirely unfair. It wasn’t like he didn’t take his job seriously- he did. It was just… he didn’t take it seriously all the time. Hanging the stars was boring. They never got to make any changes, putting up the same constellations every night. It was monotonous. Where was the fun, the joy in that? What was the point? The humans looked to the stars for inspiration, so why shouldn’t they change it up for them? How could looking at the same thing every night be inspiring to anyone?
He’d asked Ven this, once. Ventus had only laughed and shook his head, admitting that he didn’t really understand, either, but he figured they’d find out one day. Sora had been sorely disappointed because Ventus was a good deal older than he was, at least half a century or so, so Sora had kind of been expecting him to know.
It didn’t help that Sora still wasn’t the best at flying, either. And he supposed he’d caught Yen Sid on a bad day, because the man had taken one look at Sora’s messed up constellations, his poor flying skills, and had immediately cast him out. He thought that that was rather harsh, but it was hard to argue with the Lord of the Skies. Especially as one’s wings were becoming too heavy to bear, pulling him down, down, down until he was free falling with absolutely no control.
“You are weak, Sora. You have yet to master the art of flying. You disrespect the stars. You lack the proper respect for tradition. You must seek out Master Eraqus of Earth,” Yen Sid’s voice boomed in his ears, louder than even the wind, “ He will teach you respect for the stars and complete your training. Learn to fly and then you may return to us.
Sora caught on a wind current, suddenly jerking to the side. Because there was no one around to hear him, he screamed. Yelped might be a better word, but just because Sora had lost his job didn’t mean he lost his pride. The tattered remains of it, anyways.
In his heart, he knew that Ven had sent the current. Ven was probably peering down now, making sure Sora made it to Earth safely, without going Splat! on some poor soul’s cottage roof. Sora’s heart twisted as he thought about it. What he wouldn’t give to be able to thank him.
He closed his eyes. He must be getting close to the Earth now. Gods, how long had he been falling?
For a moment, he wondered what it would be like. How would the grass feel beneath his feet? Would it be soft? What were the humans like?
Briefly, adventure flared to life in his chest. He closed his eyes, spreading his arms as if they were his wings, and let out a cry of something that sounded a little like pure adrenaline.
He unfurled his wings, slowly as they pulled him down like lead, letting the air rip through his feathers as the sky roared around him.
But they were too heavy with the weight of Yen Sid’s magic pulling them to Earth, so he tucked them against his back, knowing they’d blend into his white tunic.
He must be close now. He didn’t realize just how far the sky actually was from the Earth. He opened his eyes and they were as dark as the sky around him, cursed to reflect them for all eternity by blood. The stars looked so small now. It was beautiful, really. How had he never noticed that bef-
Then, all at once, his head snapped, a terribly painful and quick down and up, and there was something around him, holding his back and under his knees and Sora shrieked like a child.
He realized, at once, that he’d fallen into a pair of arms, and that the person was looking at him now. Eyes met and, all at once, Sora stopped screaming, blinking rapidly at the sight of sea colored eyes and long silver hair peering down at him now.
It occurred to Sora that he’d just fallen into this man’s arms and that he should probably thank him.
But then he was falling again, but it was a much shorter fall this time, and he hit the ground in mere seconds.
“Ow!” Sora exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head where it had smacked into the dirt, frowning. “What was that for?”
The man peered down at him, silhouetted against the bright stars and the moon behind him. The moonlight seemed to catch on his hair, lighting what appeared to be flowers twisted into his braids. For a moment, Sora forgot to be annoyed.
Then the man opened his mouth- his pretty, pouty mouth- and Sora remembered again.
“You startled me,” he said, wrinkling his nose in a way that was cute and irritating all at once. Amazing. “Do you normally scream in people’s faces when they catch you out of the sky?”
Sora could feel his face heating up, but he shook his head.
“It’s not exactly the average Tuesday for me,” he admitted, sighing.
“Are you going to sit up?” The stranger asked. His voice wasn’t unkind, necessarily, but it wasn’t exactly friendly, either.
Sora, albeit sheepishly, sat up. He felt something under his hands as he did so, realizing that he could feel it on his bare arms, poking at him. But it was a soft, itchy poke that was entirely unfamiliar.
He stared at the ground under him, poking at him, and asked, “Is this grass?”
Above him, the man blinked in surprise. “Uh, yes?”
Sora laughed. The anger at being thrown out faded as he ran his hand through the grass, feeling each of the tiny blades brushing his fingertips before bending and giving way to the next one.
“It’s soft,” he mused, grinning.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” The stranger with the strong arms asked.
“You could say that,” Sora said. Words of home leapt to his throat, but he bit them back just as quickly. He didn’t know this man and he’d heard stories of the spirits cast out of the sky, the ones that didn’t return.
Still, he felt like he could trust him, but Sora didn’t know why.
The man sighed. He sounded resigned, but Sora couldn’t fathom why. If anyone had any right to sound resigned, it was Sora. He was the one miles below home, after all, in an entirely new world.
He noticed then the awkward bend in the man’s wrist. He frowned. It looked like an old break, one that hadn’t quite healed right.
“Does it hurt?” Sora asked, nodding towards the wrist.
The man frowned, following Sora’s gaze down, grabbing his wrist absentmindedly. “Sometimes.”
“Here,” Sora said, moving without thinking.
Swiftly, he reached behind his back, ignoring the question forming on the stranger’s lips, plucking a feather from his tucked wings. He winced at the small sting, but he was sure it was nothing compared to the aches of a poorly healed bone.
He could see the questioning gaze in Riku’s eyes, but ignored it, instead finally taking the few final steps to catch up to him. He took Riku’s hand in his, thumbing his wrist, feeling the spot where the bone had broken and healed itself, miraculously, but poorly.
And he breathed out once, feeling the energy slowly leave him, flowing from his fingertips and into the feather as it started to glow. Dust, or maybe glitter, seemed to flow from the shaft, coating the wrist, sinking into Riku’s flesh. To Sora, it lasted a lifetime, watching another piece of his magic- of him- leave to heal another, but in reality, it only lasted seconds.
Under his thumb, he could feel the bone reworking itself, stitching back together in the way it should have long ago. He could feel Riku trembling in his grip as the magic worked and for a moment, Sora was afraid he’d given him a bit of a scare.
But the last remnants of the feather faded into Riku’s skin and the feather crumbled to dust in Sora’s hand.
“There you go,” Sora said, letting go of Riku’s hand and smiling.
Riku clutched his hand to his chest, staring at it in wonder. A choked sound escaped his lips and Sora’s heart leaped with his, instantly afraid that he’d done something wrong.
But Riku just looked at him, eyes meeting as if for the first time again, and there was something like understanding in his gaze.
And he asked,
“Are you hungry?”
The man, it turned out, was named Riku. And Sora already liked him a whole lot.
There was a forest between them and wherever it was that Riku was taking him. Sora’s distrust had gone straight out the window at the first mention of food because, really, all that falling did make a nymph’s stomach growl something fierce. And he didn’t seem like the kind of person who would want to steal Sora’s feathers and kill him in his sleep when he saw the wings, so Sora had discarded his caution with ease, heels bouncing on the grass as he took in everything around him.
The trees were beautiful, but Sora had mixed feelings about them. They blocked out the moonlight and the stars, but there was something energetic about the dark that exhilarated him, making his eyes go wide and curious. Some of these leaves crunched in his hand and they made him laugh, while others were soft and gave to his touch.
There was so much to see, so much to touch and smell, that it was a little overwhelming as they made their way through the trees, over the roots and across a single stream. Sora had far too much fun with the stream, insisting on spending at least a few extra minutes splashing in it, amazed at how the water just… surrounded them, taking them in immediately. There was nothing like it in the sky, really. Sure, they had water, but it rarely bothered them, simply falling from the clouds and minding its own business.
“What, have you never seen a river before?” Riku joked.
Sora hadn’t, but he wasn’t going to tell Riku that. Instead, he just grinned and rubbed the back of his neck, shrugging. “They’re fun.”
Riku seemed to accept that answer and they moved on.
The forest was magical, he decided, divine or not.
And then there was Riku. He walked beside Sora through it all, not commenting on anything unless Sora spoke to him first. At first, Sora found this a little strange, but it quickly clicked that Riku just didn’t want to interrupt his glee.
But he walked with him, never chiding Sora for stopping to examine a flower or insect, but there to answer his endless and probably annoying questions.
It was the first time Sora could remember having fun, real fun, in longer than he was willing to admit to himself.
He wasn’t sure where they were going or even how long they’d been walking for, but he almost didn’t want to reach their destination.
“Hey, Riku?” He asked, for the hundredth time.
“Hm?” Riku answered, ocean eyes flitting back to meet Sora’s.
“I noticed something,” Sora said.
“Surprising,” Riku snorted.
Sora glared at him for a moment and Riku held his hands up in surrender. Sora was always quick to forgiveness, though, so the glare melted from his eyes easily. “We haven’t seen any flowers like the ones in your hair once. Why is that?”
Sora had kept an eye out, but they’d yet to see a single flower that even came close to the purple and pink hues of the ones braided into Riku’s hair.
Riku tensed, so quickly that Sora’s eyes couldn’t quite register the seconds before and after he seemed to freeze, despite the fact that he was still walking. It was like watching a statue walk as he took the lead and Sora scrambled to keep up.
“My flowers don’t grow around here,” he said, simply, but he refused to meet Sora’s eyes as he said it.
Sora opened his mouth to speak, but closed it just as quickly. Riku’s shoulders were squared; he wasn’t going to get any more answers out of him on this subject.
So Sora let it drop, instead choosing to stray behind him and admire the way the moonlight broke through the canopy of trees just to make Riku’s hair shine. He’d always been distracted easily in the sky, so why should Earth be any different? Especially when there was so much more to look at now.
But thinking of the sky made his heart ache, so he shoved the thought of it away and looked around for something new on the forest floor to catch his eye.
As it turned out, he didn’t need to look for much longer, because up ahead, there was an opening in the trees. If that wasn’t their destination, then Sora was going to seriously consider ditching Riku and setting out to find Eraqus as quickly as possible. The promise of dinner had been nice, but there was an urgency breathing down the back of his neck like none other. It was slow to find him, this anxiety, but like all miserable things did, it was going to catch up eventually.
Riku, as if reading his thoughts, said, “It’s not much farther, just beyond that clearing. My tr- my place is just over there.”
Sora could feel his cheeks reddening, wondering briefly if he’d spoken aloud after all. Still, Riku didn’t seem mad at all, so he supposed this just must be something he had to say a lot. Or he really could read minds, but Sora was really hoping for one of the first two.
“Oh, cool,” he said, because he didn’t really know what else to say.
Around them, the forest was thinning, the leaves becoming scarcer. The bark was darker, and there was sharp scent in the air, like death.
“What happened to them?” Sora asked, sadness carved into the slow slump of his shoulders.
Riku looked at him, his eyes sharp. “Fire.”
That didn’t seem like the entire answer, but Sora nodded anyways. He fell silent once more, eyes scraping over the burned trees until finally, they emerged from the forest.
The field in front of them was empty, with the forest continuing a few hundred feet on the other side. The grass rustled as the wind, no longer hindered by the presence of trees, pushed against them.
And then Sora blinked, and it wasn’t just a field anymore. Where he could have sworn he’d seen nothing but grass, there were several small wooden houses. There was a fire burning by one of them, a man crouching and poking at the sticks with a flame. There was something sad, something heavy and sagging in the way he held himself that made Sora’s heart ache for him without any good cause.
He glanced up to look at them, eyes narrowed, and Sora’s eyes widened comically at the face he saw.
“Ven?” He asked, jaw slack as he stared at the near duplicate of his friend. The only difference was that this boy’s eyes were bright blue and Ven’s could never be this bright during the night. Had it been the middle of the day, however, they would have been identical.
Instead of answering, the man who couldn’t possibly be Ventus but looked exactly like him turned to Riku, an accusatory glare etched into his high cheekbones and pouty lips. “Who the hell is this?”
“This is-” And then Riku stopped short, probably realizing that Sora had never told him his name. Riku had introduced himself, but Sora had fallen short of returning the favor, too caught up in the forest to care about trivial things like his name.
“Sora,” he offered now, because Riku clearly seemed to be in trouble with not-Ventus, and that didn’t seem fair. “I’m Sora! It’s nice to meet you.”
Not-Ventus turned his gaze back to Sora for only a moment, but Sora could see the way he looked him up and down, eyes concentrated in the way only a hunter’s could be. Sora wasn’t a danger to them, but under that sharp stare, he couldn’t think of the words to assure the stranger of that.
“We can trust him,” Riku said, forcefully, but his entire body was tense beside Sora’s. “I promise.”
“Your promises don’t mean much to me,” the man replied, but he visibly relaxed. Not much, just enough for Sora to notice, but he took it as a good sign. “But fine. It’s nice to meet you, Sora.”
Sora beamed at him. He’d so rarely had the chance to make new friends in the sky and, honestly, meeting two new people in one day was thrilling. He thrived off company, whenever he could find it.
Riku began walking again, the permission to approach the campfire and the huts apparently granted at some point during the conversation. Sora was plenty happy to get closer, though, because the wind was cold against his bare arms and he could practically feel the warmth of the fire just from looking at it.
Riku seemed to be having the same idea because he made a beeline for the fire, holding his hands beside it. Sora copied his motions, thrilled to feel the heat of it sizzling against his palms.
He turned his gaze to the man still poking the fire with a stick.
Now that he was close, he could see the differences between this stranger and Ventus. For starters, Sora had never seen Ven’s under-eyes this dark before nor was he ever this pale. Frankly, this man looked like a sickly version of his friend.
“What’s your name?” Sora asked.
He looked at him, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion, hesitating to answer the question.
“Roxas,” he said. Sora noted another difference between Roxas and Ventus; Roxas didn’t have the slight lisp that Ven did.
Roxas, despite his initial resistance to Sora’s presence, turned out to be surprisingly friendly. Despite the late hour, he’d apparently been cooking dinner for himself and Riku at the fire and was more than happy to split the soup into three portions to share with Sora.
As they ate the surprisingly tasty soup that Roxas had prepared, Sora got to know the pair a little better. The conversation dissolved into something of a shallow twenty questions game, no one offering anything more personal than their favorite color (Roxas, he learned, like red the best, while Riku thought blue was especially pretty), but it was fun nonetheless.
Through the anecdotes the two supplied, Sora learned about the area he’d fallen to, the most notable piece of geography being a mountain several villages away. When he asked how high it was, Roxas had grinned and said, “High enough to reach the heavens,” and Sora had set his sights on it. If he was to find Master Eraqus, he knew in his heart that it would be at the top of that mountain.
He had tried to press further about the mountain itself, trying to gauge how to get there more than anything, but the most he could get out of them that it was a long journey, one that not many people braved. That didn’t exactly lift Sora’s spirits, but he was at least glad to have found some sort of direction. And it also confirmed his suspicions; Masters were often known for hiding out of the most ridiculous places, only awarding their company to those daring enough to make the journey.
Sora, who saw a potential friend in everyone, couldn’t even begin to imagine living like that.
“Hey, other than this guy,” Roxas started, yawning before continuing, “did you see anything noteworthy out in the woods?”
Sora pouted about being called ‘this guy’ but Roxas noticed and grinned at him. The grin was menacing under the glare of the flame, but Sora knew that it was just a trick of the light.
Riku shook his head. “No sign of them. They must have gone West, it’s the only possibility.”
“Who?” Sora asked, never one to contain his curiosity.
Riku and Roxas shared a look, as if Sora wasn’t sitting across from them to see it. Sora’s frown deepened.
“Don’t worry about it,” Riku said at the same time Roxas said, “It’s nothing.”
They glared at each other.
Sora pushed his spoon around in his bowl. It was clear that they didn’t want to talk about it, so fine. They’d been kind enough to let him into their home (well, next to it, technically, but that was neither here nor there), so he wouldn’t press them for information they clearly didn’t want to share with him.
That didn’t stop his curiosity from digging a hole right into his chest, but that was manageable.
“Hey, Sora, how much do you know about sheep?” Roxas asked.
“Not much,” Sora said, despite the fact that Riku was shaking his head with the speed of a madman on the other side of the fire.
Roxas’ grin turned devilishe as he launched into a long winded explanation of their grazing patterns that felt entirely random to Sora, but he was happy to listen regardless.
He noticed, as bowls were emptied and the fire began to dwindle, that Roxas had to stop talking every few minutes to cough into his arm. He couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with him, looking for the lull in the conversation to heal him with a feather, but it never seemed like the right time to butt in and, before he knew it, Roxas was stretching weakly and bidding them goodnight.
“Riku, you brought him, you share your bed with him,” Roxas yawned as he started to walk away.
Sora, who hadn’t even considered where he’d be sleeping that night, blinked in surprise.
“Don’t worry,” Riku said, quickly, “You can have the cot. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“You really don’t have to-” Sora started as Riku stood, wiping dust off his pants.
“It’s not a problem,” Riku interrupted, “Come on, it’s the one over there.”
So Sora stood, following Riku into one of the small huts. It was dark, dark enough that he had to squint to try and make out shapes as his eyes adjusted.
“It’s there,” Riku said, pointing towards the cot-like shape in the corner of the room.
“Really, I wouldn’t mind sleeping on the floor,” Sora said, but he could just make out Riku shaking his head.
So to the cot he went, flopping onto it rather unceremoniously.
It was late, but he was used to being up at ridiculous hours, thanks to the nature of his job, so despite closing his eyelids as tightly as he could, sleep evaded him.
Instead, his mind was filled with too many thoughts, all fighting for his attention at once, a symphony intent on drowning him in misery. He thought of Yen Sid casting him out, his cruel and judging eyes fixed on Sora as he threw him from the sky. He thought of Ven, wondering if he was lonely putting up the stars without Sora. And he thought of the doubt creeping into his mind. What if the mountain Roxas had mentioned wasn’t where Eraqus dwelled? What would he do then?
He couldn’t stop thinking. He needed a distraction.
Into the dark, Sora asked, “What’s wrong with Roxas?”
Riku didn’t answer at first. In fact, he took so long to reply that Sora was starting to wonder if he’d fallen asleep. Finally, though, Sora heard a sharp intake of breath. “You’re not from Earth, are you?”
Sort snorted. “What gave it away? The feather or the falling from the sky?”
“A little bit of both,” Riku replied. “So, despite the fact that we just met, I guess it’s probably safe to tell you that Roxas and I aren’t exactly human.”
Sora wasn’t entirely surprised, truth be told. He nodded before realizing that Riku couldn’t see it. “Okay.”
“The human word for us is usually nymphs,” Riku explained. “Forest creatures. Tree dwellers. The likes. Do you follow?”
“Yeah,” Sora said.
“Good. So, we don’t actually need to be with a tree to live. We move from tree to tree, forest to forest, typically, because we can, to spread roots and see the world. But while we’re… communing with a tree, we become its lifeforce and it becomes ours.”
“Makes sense.”
“Good. Roxas and I have lived here, with others of our kind, for about a year now? And we didn’t… we didn’t realize the humans were nearby,” Riku continued, his words catching in his throat. Sora wished he could see him, to be able read his expression, but it was too dark to even make out shapes now. “And one day, I was out with the sheep and when I came back, the humans were…”
As his voice trailed off, Sora felt his heart clench in his chest. “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me.”
“No, it’s fine,” Riku assured him, but his words were stronger than his voice was. He sounded, Sora realized, guilty. But he continued the story nonetheless. “The humans were burning down the forest. And Roxas, he was trying to save his tree. He tried so hard but… there was nothing he could do. And by the time he finally severed his connection to the tree, it had nearly killed him, too.”
“That’s awful,” Sora said, rage boiling in the pit of his stomach on behalf of his new friend. Roxas had seemed so nice at dinner, so quick to share his food and friendship with Sora. He didn’t deserve that.
“It was,” Riku said, quietly. “It still is. I’m not sure he’ll ever be fully himself again.”
Sora stayed quiet for a moment, thinking over his next question. He opened his mouth, closing it again, before finally gathering the words to ask, “Why didn’t you tell him about the feather, then? About me? I could easily-”
Riku cut him off, startling Sora. He wasn’t used to being interrupted. “I didn’t want to get his hopes up. And I didn’t want to put you in a position where you’d feel obligated to help.”
Sora’s frown deepened even if Riku couldn’t see it. “Of course I’m going to help him. First thing in the morning.”
With his lifeforce quite literally burned out of him like that, it would probably take two or three feathers to completely heal him. Sora’s magic wasn’t perfect, after all, but enough of it could heal almost any wound.
“Sora,” Riku said.
When nothing further came, Sora asked, “Yes?”
“Thank you,” Riku said, his voice sounding oddly raspier, but Sora chalked it up to his imagination.
“Good night, Riku,” Sora simply said, his voice cheerful as always.
He woke slowly, eyes blinking open to darkness, soft light slowly beginning to pour through the entrance. It was strange, because he didn’t know where he was, but he was too sleepy to care. He could worry about it after a few more hours of sleep. It was probably Ven’s fault, anyways. Sora attributed most faults in his life to Ven, so surely his friend would wander in eventually and explain what was going on once it was a reasonable hour.
As he drifted in and out of sleep for a few minutes, the pieces began to fall back into place. No, he realized, waking with a jolt, Ventus would not be coming to tell him where he was.
Because he was in a stranger’s hut on Earth , thousands of miles below his home.
Sora sat up suddenly, breathing getting quicker as he clutched at the blanket.
The harsh daylight streaming through the window in the corner made everything feel so much more real. He’d been cast out. He’d really been thrown out and for what? To discover new powers? To learn? He felt like he couldn’t breathe as his limbs began to fill with lead, dragging him down, down, down-
The door opened.
Riku didn’t seem to see how distressed Sora was because he said, “Oh, good, you’re up. Come on out, I made breakfast.”
Healing Roxas was a surprisingly uneventful task. Sora had grabbed three feathers off his wings, wincing slightly at the pain of pulling them out, and had grabbed Roxas’ hand when he wasn’t paying attention. The blond had sputtered for a moment before eyes grew wide as the feathers began to glow and life seemed to seep its way back into Roxas’ bones. His skin regained color, cheeks pinker than Sora was expecting. He seemed to grow taller, too, but that might have just been his posture correcting itself after months of misuse by slouching.
“What?” Roxas breathed, staring at his hands with awe in his eyes, flexing his fingers slowly as his gaze shifted to Sora’s.
Sora smiled at him. “Do you feel better now?”
“I…” Roxas, it seemed, was completely flabbergasted. “How did you…”
Sora pressed a finger to his lips. “It’s a secret.”
Roxas blinked. “You’re-”
Sora shushed him again. “Really, though, did it work? Do you feel better?”
“I… do,” Roxas nodded, surprise flashing across his face at his own words. Slowly, a shy grin began to spread across his face, transforming his face into a caricature of joy. “I do!”
Sora beamed at him. Roxas took his hands in his excitement, pulling them both upwards as he jumped into the air without the weight of a dying curse. Sora couldn’t even begin to imagine how badly he’d wanted this, but he could see it in the new fervor behind Roxas’ movements, in the way his eyes seemed to glow in the sunlight now.
“He fixed my wrist, too,” Riku supplied, giving Roxas a pointed look. Roxas just grinned back at him in response. “So I’m going to help him get to Mount Kamory.”
Sora turned to him, gaping in surprise. How could he have possibly known-
Riku seemed to read the question on his lips, shrugging. “You talk in your sleep.”
Sora closed his mouth, opening it again and repeated the motion several times before he could really find any words to say. “I… do?”
Riku nodded.
“I’ll come, too,” Roxas said quickly, but Riku was shaking his head.
“No, you need to continue searching for the others. I’ll meet up with you when we’re done, it won’t take more than a month or so,” Riku told him, sounding so sure of himself that Sora couldn’t help but stare at him.
Riku seemed taller than life as he spoke, the sun reflecting off his silver hair in a direct attempt to blind Sora with his light
Sora felt tears pricking at the back of his eyes. “You don’t have to do that.”
Riku shook his head again. “No, I do. It’s a good start to repaying your kindness.”
“I-“
“You saved my friend’s life, Sora,” Riku said, as if Sora could have forgotten in such a short time. “Unless you don’t want me to come?”
“No! No that’s not it!” Sora said quickly, hands waving madly to emphasize his point.
Roxas looked like he wanted to protest himself. “I should-“
Riku put a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. “They need you.”
“They need you, too,” Roxas muttered.
Riku shook his head. “Nah.”
“Well, at least let me go with you for a little while. We both need to start going East, after all.”
This seemed agreeable enough to Riku.
“When should we leave?” Roxas’ question was directed at Riku.
“Immediately.”
——
And so they had, leaving just an hour or so after Riku’s declaration.
On the first day, the journey was uneventful. Sora found himself joking with Roxas and Riku as they walked, enjoying their company very much. It had been awhile since he’d met anyone new to talk to and he found both of them absolutely fascinating. Roxas, he found, was more cheerful than his initial reception had suggested. He was hilarious, too, making both Sora and Riku laugh at every chance.
And Riku.
Riku was something else entirely.
Sora couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly it was about Riku that fascinated him so much.
He was determined to find out before they reached the top of the mountain.
On the second day, they parted ways with Roxas at the edge of the forest, and he hugged them both goodbye. Sora found that he was actually going to miss him as they wished each other good luck on their respective journeys. Roxas had pulled Riku in for a group hug, instructing him and Sora to take care of each other. They’d all laughed and then, with a flash of green, Roxas was gone.
On the third day, Riku started to talk to him more. It turned out that boredom was the best supplier of friendship on the road. They talked for the entirety of the days traveling, finally setting up camp at the edge of a small town.
In the distance, Mount Kamory looked as far away as it had on the first day. It loomed over them constantly. Sora stayed optimistic, though.
They would reach it soon enough. And then he could go home again.
On the fourth day, Sora slipped while they were crossing a bridge and it occurred to him, as his head went under the river, that he’d never bothered to learn how to swim. He’d thrashed under the water, making the mistake of desperately trying to suck in air underwater, paying for it dearly as water poured into his lungs, dragging him even deeper under. He could still see the light of the surface streaming down as he sunk deeper, fear clutching at his heart as he began to get light headed. For a moment, he felt, with absolute clarity, the fear of a man about to die.
And then Riku’s strong arms were around him from behind, pulling him up towards to surface and Sora’s head broke through the water. He gasped for air as Riku pulled him to shore, where they both lay for several minutes, desperately trying to catch their breath.
“Thanks,” Sora sputtered, spouting water everywhere in the process.
“Don’t mention it,” Riku said, wheezing nearly as bad as Sora.
“I don’t know how to swim,” Sora admitted, even though it was kind of obvious at this point.
Riku nodded, wincing as he sat up. Sora followed his line of sight, gasping at the sight of blood coming from his companion’s leg.
“I must have scraped it when I jumped in,” Riku murmured.
Sora was moving before he could really think about it, pulling a feather out and healing Riku before he could even try to protest it.
Riku stared at him.
“Sora,” he said.
Sora shrugged it off quickly, falling back onto his back. “You were hurt.”
Riku’s staring continued. Sora tried to keep himself from shrinking under his ridiculously pretty green eyes.
“Why don’t we call it a day?” Riku suggested, trying to hide how hard he was still panting. “It’s getting late. And besides, this would be a good spot to try and teach you how to swim.”
Sora glared at him as he laughed. It was impossible, though, not to join in.
It was several more days of walking, walking, and even more walking before they ran into trouble.
Sora didn’t really mind all the walking. He wanted to fly, of course, but he found quickly that his wings were too heavy to unfurl. It was infuriating, but he grit his teeth and traveled on foot like he was born for it.
“So-“ Sora was saying, before he was cut off by his own yelp as Riku’s hand slapped itself over his mouth, arms pulling him back against a tree.
“Stay still,” Riku hissed, hand clamped over Sora’s mouth. “Be quiet.”
Sora went limp in Riku’s grasp. He tried to not think about how this was the second time in as many days that he’d been trapped in those stupidly muscular arms.
Not the time, he desperately tried to tell himself.
Riku’s hand lowered, but Sora stayed quiet regardless, still feeling the weight of it against his lips.
He listened harder now, catching the sound of a far off voice. He couldn’t imagine how Riku had heard it through his ramblings.
“So,” a girl was saying, like Sora had been just mere seconds ago, “I heard rumors of forest nymphs in this area. Healing powers, even.”
Through the trees, Sora could just barely make out several figures standing in the clearing they were headed straight for.
“Hunters,” Riku murmured, barely loud enough for Sora to hear him.
Sora tensed. He didn’t know what exactly they were hunting, but Riku was clearly on guard, which meant that he should be too.
“Good,” a second, male voice replied. “Healing powers are the rarest on the market. We’ll make a killing.”
“But they’re so boring,” another piped in, his voice drawling and pouty. “Why can’t we ever hunt fire nymphs? I’d much rather get my hands on their power.”
“Because they don’t exist, dumbass,” yet another voice chimed in. Just how many of them were there?
What are we going to do? Sora thought, desperately trying to think of a way around them.
He looked to his right and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a woman standing in the brush, not even ten feet away. Her eyes widened as he met them, clearly just as surprised to see them as he was to see her.
She nodded towards the clearing in front of him, probably indicating the hunters.
Sora shrugged, the universal gesture of yeah I don’t know those guys but they sure don’t seem nice, right?
She turned, impossibly silent. Glancing over her shoulder, she gestured for them to follow her before disappearing into the trees.
It was as good an escape as any, so Sora grabbed Riku’s hand and bolted.
They ran through the forest after her, praying silently that the hunters weren’t following. Sora didn’t know where she was leading them, but it had to be better than the alternative.
When they were far enough away, Riku stalled in place, holding onto Sora’s hand still, causing him to do the same.
The woman paused, turning to face them.
“Who are you?” Riku demanded. “Why did you save us?”
Sora had half a mind to chide him for not thanking her first, considering she helped them escape and all, but the woman’s shrug caught his attention first.
“My name is Aqua,” she said, staring up at him with eyes full of determination. “And you wouldn’t happen to know how to get to the Underworld, would you?”