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Heartless danced all around them: shadows and high soldiers tapped from foot to foot with claws sharp and ready to strike; gold beats swirled overhead, sparking threateningly; tireblades drove in taunting circles. Citizens of San Fransokyo ran past the creatures in a frenzy, adding to the chaos, but even worse, some brave-or-foolish folk stayed to spectate their favorite heroes Big Hero Six (with special guests, Keyblade Hero 3 and — what should Riku’s hero name be? Or, would they add him to Sora’s moniker?) strike them down. The situation was far from dire or unique, but Sora faced it critically, looking for the right moment.
The group of eight wasted no time to attack, keeping the heartless contained to the small radius away from civilians and buildings — much to his dismay. But the opening Sora had been waiting for came quickly; two Mechanitaurs charged away from the group.
“Me and Riku got them!” Sora told Big Hero Six. The group didn’t even glance away from the other enemies, merely nodded. The great thing about working with this team was that they were flexible and flawlessly coordinated.
Sora grinned brilliantly at Riku next to him, sparing the briefest moment to admire his brilliant green eyes, narrowed in determination as they always were in battle. The thin line of his lips, pressed tight, begged to be pulled loose — and Sora’d be a liar if his furrowed brow didn’t make Sora a little jealous of the heartless for getting all his attention…
Perhaps sensing Sora’s stare, Riku glanced back at him and nodded, too, then tilted his head toward their running targets, exposing a sweet line of smooth, pale skin on his neck—
Baymax sidled close, ready to accompany them. Sora had to think fast — how to get rid of him for now? His gaze flew around — there! “Baymax, Wasabi could use back-up; we’ll catch up!”
“Sora, your adrenaline levels are unusually high,” the robot conveyed, tone positive despite his diagnosis. “This can manifest in: distraction, bravado, and arous—”
“I’ll be fine, Baymax!” Sora wished he could cover Baymax’s mouth — that is, if he had one — but luckily interrupting him did the trick. “Besides, I’ve got Riku.” Sure, Riku was at least half the cause, but who was counting?
Baymax’s mechanical head tilted, and Sora sent him a begging look. This time, Riku came to his aid with a hand to the small of Sora’s back (don’t shiver, don’t shiver, do NOT—). “We gotta go now, or they’ll get away.”
And that was all they needed to say; within the blink of an eye they were running after the Mechanituars and Baymax flew the opposite direction, toward Wasabi. Score.
The mission in San Fransokyo today was, frankly, simple. It was just enough of a threat for Grand Master Aqua to send support, and Sora had dibs on the next mission in this world already. It should be a simple stop-and-go, but that didn’t mean they were in any rush, right? It’s not like anyone expected them to return from San Fransokyo immediately…
But, speaking of stop-and-go, they found their lovely excuse— err, enemies— charging in intermittent circles around a couple trying to picnic in a small garden in front of a huge building. To the side, Sora spotted a set of stairs; they looked familiar. Didn’t he spot a lucky emblem here, once?
“Bingo,” Sora heard Riku mutter lowly. Grinning again and feeling the blood pick up pace in his veins, Sora replied, “Stairs — toro?”
Chuckling, Riku met his gaze. Though they were fighting Darkness, Riku seemed to glow with thrill and happiness that could only originate in Light. “You got it.”
Pumped up, Sora winked at him, and then sped ahead to the stairs while Riku slowed as he approached the mechanical bulls.
“Hey!” He called to them, laying Braveheart across his shoulders oh-so-casually (oh god and how that showed off his arms, the steel of the blade creating a backdrop for the curve of every muscle, the tease).
The mechanical bulls stopped and looked at Riku, eying him suspiciously. Riku was quick to taunt them before he lost their attention. “You know it’s rude to crash a picnic.” He sent a dark fireball, small so as to prevent the heat reaching the couple, at the heartless, and immediately they groaned angrily. Steam rose out of their metal nostrils, but Riku only smirked back.
The bulls began a new charge at him, but with sinful grace Riku dodged back, landing on his feet effortlessly. While Riku redirected them away from the couple, who packed their things quickly and left, Sora had nothing yet to do but lean against the brick side rail and admire Riku work. Like a dog herding sheep, he slashed and fired spells at the minotaurs, avoiding all the creature’s attacks despite their speed. His movements looked impossible, gravity defying and magical. His hair was blown back from the speed, and Sora found himself half-remembering, half-imagining soothing the tension between Riku’s brows with a gentle swipe of his thumbs, pushing silver bangs back to place a kiss on Riku’s smooth forehead…
Sora jolted back to attention, ears burning, when his chin slipped out of the palm of his hand, nearly face-planting on brick.
But, Sora’s return from daydreaming was well-timed; the heartless were demoralized enough to back away from Riku’s onslaught, and he corralled them toward the stairs. Riku looked up to Sora, and Sora must’ve had a funny expression (dreamy and/or dopey still, if Sora were to guess), because Riku’s grin turned lopsided, and pink dusted his cheeks.
Riku wasn’t embarrassed enough to refrain from teasing, though. “What, you’re just gonna stand there?”
“I was enjoying the show! You looked like you got ‘em covered,” Sora baited, voice sweet.
Riku laughed, a beautiful, auditory light to Sora’s ears. “Oh, I got ‘em alright — just for you.”
And then, the Mechanituars charged up the stairs. Riku had the audacity to stand still at the bottom of the stairs, arms crossed and lips in a small, smug grin. But Sora was prepared, anway. With a smirk, Sora jumped right into the Heartless’s path and stood straight. In the last moments before the clash, he placed two fingers at his lips to let out an ear-piercing whistle. “El Torero!” he exclaimed, and then, Sora became the eye of a storm of orange flower petals.
This one, he learned from Miguel — it wasn’t a change form, per se, but it wasn’t a Magic Ride either. The petals swirled around him, turning brighter and brighter until they were brilliant, neon lights. They settled across his arms and legs like seams, sparkling blue, green, pink, and yellow. They pulled close to his body, giving the appearance of wearing form-fitting long pants and a jacket, but it felt weightless and free. And then, the final touch: red lights too numerous to count settled and poured down Sora’s back, creating a cloak so ductile Sora could wave it around like a glittering red flag.
Riku had seen this transformation before, but his eyes still widened, a small breathless smile on his face as he stared. Sora’s chest swelled with pride, and he couldn’t stand still a single second longer.
Assured he had an audience, he set his eyes back on the Heartless, just moments away from barreling into him. “Come and get me!” Sora taunted loudly, flourishing the red cape.
Despite being part machine, the Mechanituars fell for it — their gazes turned red to match, and they both zeroed in on the cape instead of Sora. As they passed, Sora spun wide, dragging the lights through the air and hearing them scrape into the Heartless with every touch. Like the Mad Teacups, Sora spun all across the brick landing, luring the Minotaurs with him and trapping them in the wind magic swirling with him. Every step Sora took, music played overhead: guitars, trumpets, accordions, and drums poured out a lively, fast-paced tune that Sora naturally stepped into.
The heartless continued to rampage, but Riku had already weakened them, and so they quickly began to tire. Leading up to the finisher, Sora summoned his Keyblade, joining it with the cape, the motion so fluid it could be a dance. The scrape of the blade against the metal bodies of his enemies sounded like the crash of a cymbal, and somehow it fit the music perfectly. Both the Mechanituars were stunned and that’s when Sora used the last of the form’s energy.
“Haha!” Sora cried, and slammed the Keyblade into the ground. The bricks on the ground shook from the force, and in a powerful ripple, the lights and flower petals flew out around him. As intended, the blast obliterated the enemies to nothing but rising hearts to the sky. The lights dimmed and the flower petals fell to the ground, fluttering with the day’s breeze before magically dematerializing.
When Sora looked up again, Riku was in the same spot Sora had been prior, leaning against the railing and watching Sora with that same smug grin.
“How’d you like that?” Sora said, throwing his hands behind his head as he approached.
“Impressive as always,” Riku acquiesced, unfolding his arms, “but — I almost feel bad for them.”
“Huh?”
Tilting his head, Riku explained, “They’re too easy; they didn’t even get to land one hit on you before they died. It’s sad.”
“Or maybe I’m just too strong.” Sora slipped his arms past Riku’s sides, resting his weight on the brick behind him. It caged Riku in, but he didn’t look disturbed in the slightest. Sora leaned up toward his face as far as he dared in public (which was pretty darn close) and finally, finally, found the opening to let Riku in on his little plan. “If you’re so sad, you could get revenge for them.”
Riku blinked a total of twice, processing Sora’s notoriously bad double-speak, before he laughed through his nose and rested his hands on Sora’s waist, pulling him closer. “Oh, so that’s why you wanted to go after them.”
Sora scoffed, but melted against his boyfriend anyway. “That’s not the only reason,” he said, petulantly, “and what, you gotta problem with it?”
Sora glared up into Riku’s deep but bright eyes, but without anger — it was more of a challenge, to see if Riku could really deny him.
Riku held his ground. “We’re kinda on a mission.” But as soon as he finished the sentence, his eyes wandered around — the way they always did when Sora wanted a kiss-break, to find a spot they could slip away to.
Grinning, Sora replied, “But the mission’s ‘too easy’, Riku — the others have got the rest covered.”
“You’ve thought of everything, huh,” Riku huffed, rhetorically.
“Just ten minutes,” Sora said, but he knew he’d already won as the tips of Riku’s fingers slipped under Sora’s jacket. Sora barely suppressed a shiver. “They won’t even notice.”
A thrill went down Sora's spine as Riku leaned in, breath ghosting over his ear. “Skyscraper to our right, 15th floor.”
~ * ~
Fun fact: the air outside the building was colder the higher they went, but, another fun fact: Riku’s arms were always warm, and his kisses were even warmer.
Riku had gotten to the floor just under the roof of the building first, but only because he’d left Sora standing on the ground level without even a single indication it was a race. And maybe Sora had been distracted by Riku whispering in his ear. Either way, it was all foul play, which meant Riku had no right to complain when Sora pushed him against the nearest concrete wall and kissed him upon arrival.
He didn’t.
This was Sora’s absolute favorite mission activity, hands-down. Though they were often together in the Tower, there were too many familiar faces and too much to do there to get a moment properly alone. And when they snuck off from their duties and missions together to some remote place, Sora felt like they were really together, alone, and Sora could feel his world shrink to just the two of them, could hyperfocus on Riku’s heartbeat, his breath, his voice, the feel of his hands and his lips.
Right now, Riku’s hand was in Sora’s hair, at the base of his skull, gently yet urgently pulling him in, and the other had slipped under Sora’s jacket again. Sora rested all his weight on Riku’s chest, preoccupied with keeping their lips pressed together. Riku’s kiss was soft, lips sun-kissed but not chapped (how Sora would never understand — these things never happened to him, only Sora), and perfectly molded to Sora’s. All the adrenaline from battle returned but this time as a fluttering in Sora’s stomach, electricity in his veins.
But the kiss was chaste, and Sora wanted more. He opened his mouth to swipe his tongue across Riku’s bottom lip, asking, and was delighted to taste a little lemon and ginger — probably from a hi-potion he’d had earlier. Riku let Sora deepen the kiss, and Sora chased the sweet flavor into his mouth. It was there, but only as a hint; the rest was all Riku, earthy and subtle. It was such a relief to be with Riku like this again, Sora groaned into the kiss without thinking.
The hand in Sora’s hair twitched, pulling locks just on the right side of painful, and Sora pressed his palm against Riku’s chest, both leaning even more on him and feeling the slope of his pecs through the fabric. Sora had always known and admired that Riku was strong — built in a way Sora would never be. There was a time he thought he was jealous of that, but now he could finally appreciate it in this… indescribable and new way. He didn’t have to label it; he just put it on the list of a million things Sora loved about Riku.
They parted not even a whole second to intake air and kiss again, this time Riku teasing Sora’s lips and tasting him; it made Sora’s knees feel weak, and through the haze of kissing Riku, kissing Riku, kissing Riku, he wondered what he tasted like. It didn’t matter how many times they made out, Sora still felt like he’d ascended to Olympus or something when they did, still got butterflies and shivers, and craved for ‘next time’ all the time. It drove him crazy how Riku was so gentle and yet not; kissed him so tenderly it made him teary eyed when he thought about it later — and yet so urgently he felt like he’d catch fire. And he wanted to. All Sora knew was that Riku was intoxicating.
The mission and the rest of the universe had melted away, for Sora. The only thought Sora had now was biting Riku’s bottom lip and pulling, and watching for Riku’s reaction. Somewhere along the way, Sora’s hand had slid down Riku’s chest, fingers grazing his stomach, and had begun tugging at Riku’s tucked in shirt. It wasn’t fair Riku made it so difficult to touch his skin when Sora made it easy; Riku had slipped his hand under Sora’s tank-top, his fingers pressing into the small of Sora’s back that had Sora shivering.
At least Sora got some payback when Riku’s breath hitched as Sora’s teeth pulled his lip, eyes fluttering open to reveal how dark and dilated they’d become. Sora had never seen this kind of dangerous look on Riku before they started doing this, but he loved that it was Sora’s and Sora’s alone. Riku looked at him with such intensity — like Sora was the only other person in the world, that there’d never been another thought in his mind. Maybe it was selfish, but Sora hope that’s what it meant.
This time, Riku pulled Sora’s head back by the hair, and gasping Sora tilted his head back. “Riku—” And then, Riku’s lips were on Sora’s neck, and Sora felt dizzy, tingly all over. Though Sora had been the one to pin Riku, Sora felt paralyzed by the sensation of Riku’s lingering kisses, unable to do anything but make small, embarrassing noises when Riku nipped the skin.
Not that that deterred Riku. In fact, it emboldened him, and when he found a spot that made Sora squirm, he gently kissed it before sucking on the skin. Sora swore he saw stars.
“Riku,” Sora rasped, and his hands were as desperate as his voice. Finally Riku’s shirt was untucked so Sora could press his palm against Riku’s toned stomach, the skin smooth and hot. He could feel the muscles twitch with every breath, and took pride when he was the cause. Though they’d seen each other shirtless countless times, there was something so tantalizingly intimate that Sora could touch. It was tactile proof that Riku was here, with Sora… the knowledge that Sora was likely the only person to touch him this way made him so giddy.
By the time Riku reached his ear, he was trembling, holding onto Riku for dear life. Riku would likely have some red scratches on his back where Sora’s other hand explored, but it was nothing a Cure couldn’t fix, and besides, sometimes Riku insisted Sora let him keep them. Sora understood, though they didn’t talk about it. The thought of telling Riku that he looked for the small blooms of purple on his neck in the mirror when alone was still made Sora a blushing, giggly mess — so if Riku liked Sora’s scratches, he could have them.
When Sora couldn’t stand it a moment longer, he pulled away just far enough from Riku that he could dip back in and capture Riku’s kiss-bruised lips to abuse them more. Though Sora thought it was cold when they’d gotten here, Sora was hot all over now. He felt invincible, that he could kiss Riku forever and never tire of it, or that he could combust and not burn.
Their kisses were desperate and deep. Sora was losing himself in it, wanting to touch Riku more—
Something flew past — suspiciously rocket-propelled, Sora guessed by the sound, and he pulled away from Riku just in time for whatever it was to land behind him.
“Hello, Sora and Riku,” Baymax said, and Sora felt himself blush from the chest up. Whirling around, Sora sheepishly raised his hands as if that proved they’d been doing nothing at all. Baymax of course didn’t give any indication of anything, but continued, “Hiro and the others were worried, so I was sent to find you. I have sent confirmation that you are safe with only minor injuries.”
Riku cleared his throat behind him, but in a noncommittal way. Sora laughed guiltily, and said, “We-we’re fine, Baymax! We’ll — uh — meet you all back at the garage?”
Baymax didn’t move to leave. “Riku, you have minor abrasions on your lower back. Would you like me to administer an anti-bacterial spray?”
Something in Sora broke, and though he pressed his lips together he couldn’t stop himself from smiling or suppress the small, choked up noises that escaped him.
“Err, uh, no, Baymax, it’s fine—”
Riku hardly ever sounded that thrown off, and that did it: Sora burst into laughter. It shook him so hard he nearly fell into Riku, who at least provided structural support. Sora heard Baymax move by the electrical whirring of his joints, but Riku reiterated, “We’ll meet you back at the garage soon so go on ahead; uh— thanks, for uh, finding us.”
That did the trick, because Baymax flew off after agreeing. Sora turned until he was laughing into Riku’s chest, less leaning and more hugging him. “Minor abrasions,”
Sora snickered, and Riku chuckled with him, shaking his head.
“That’s one way to put it,” he agreed. Sighing, as if releasing the embarrassment physically, he continued in amusement, “I think we were gone more than ten minutes.”
Sora looked up at him with a grin, the heat and panic from earlier simmered down to a warm contentment through his body. He still felt like he was blushing, but it was ok, because Riku was too.
“Oops,” Sora said without a single ounce of guilt.
“Let’s hope Baymax doesn’t give the others a detailed breakdown of our injuries.” He shook his head again. Sora would feel self-conscious about it, but it was difficult to feel anything but the thrill that they still got away with it, all things considered.
Sora lifted up to give Riku’s nose a peck, in reassurance. Hands on Riku’s waist, he asked, “Do they hurt though, the…?”
“No,” Riku replied. He couldn’t keep eye contact, but he smiled. “I’m good.”
Sora grinned wider, feeling light. “I’m great.”
Riku laughed through his nose. “Well, that’s good…” He looked out over the city, sobering. “We should head back, though.”
With an exaggerated sigh, Sora agreed, “I guess so…” but didn’t pull away from him. Riku pushed Sora’s bangs back and placed a chaste kiss in the center of his forehead. It made Sora warm again, like he could melt into Light. When Riku pulled back, he pushed back Sora’s hair that grew behind his ear and looked the area over before his lips quirked into a small smirk.
Sora instinctually hid what he knew to be there with his hand. “Maybe next time we should just wait till after the mission, huh.”
“If someone can be patient,” Riku teased, though they both knew patience was not one of Sora’s strong suits, and likely wouldn’t change. He tilted his head to point toward the city. “Let’s go.” Taking Sora’s hand, they headed back.
To their mortification, when they returned, Hiro told them that if they wanted privacy, all they had to do was ask.