Chapter Text
Nightmares were a common thing for Sora after they made it back from Shibuya. Riku guessed they’d been prevalent even before then, but with everyone on separate missions before the war, they didn’t spend a whole lot of time together until now.
Riku discovered that he could dive into Sora’s dreams completely by accident, feeling a tug in his sleep one night and following it only to find himself smack in the middle of the Keyblade Graveyard, watching their friends get picked off by the demon tide, one by one.
An event that Riku didn’t recall. In his memory, Sora charged forward and defeated the demon tide nearly on his own. With aid from hundreds of ancient keyblades, of course. But the scene that played out before him, Riku had never seen.
Riku tensed as a feeling spiked in his senses. An intense feeling not his own, but left him breathless and empty. He was jolted out of his thoughts by a scream. Ahead of him, Sora was on his knees.
“Sora!” Another too familiar voice spoke. How had Riku missed himself as part of the crowd during the demon tide’s attack? Riku watched as the dream of himself rushed toward Sora's side.
Riku was unable to hear if the two said anything at that time. Dream-Riku kneeling by Sora’s side before standing. And Riku watched as the dream version of himself walked toward the swarming demon tide.
As his other walked, Riku felt a growing panic rise in his chest. An intense fear that didn’t belong to him. The feeling grew more and more intense with each step the dream-Riku took.
Then the scenery began to shift. The edges of Riku’s vision blurring and darkening. When the blurry image of himself stopped and raised his keyblade the foreign panic in him flared, pulling Riku to his knees.
That night, Riku was jolted awake by Sora’s screams. It wasn’t uncommon, Sora had had plenty of bad nightmares in the weeks he’d been back. He wasn’t often able to talk about them, and Riku didn’t pry, just held him close until he could calm down.
More often than not, they’d make their way to the tower's kitchen after these episodes and they’d make hot chocolate, Sora always asking for extra marshmallows even when Riku already added more.
After this particular event though, Riku brought it up to Yen Sid, who reminded him of the dreameater link that they’d forged way back during the Mark of Mastery exam. The old wizard theorized that Riku was still Sora’s dreameater, and therefore could have some sort of control over his dreams.
Riku made it his mission to learn as much as he can about this link and the Dreameater powers after that. If he could help Sora with his nightmares, he would do it.
“Riku! You made it!” Sora turned to him with a wide grin as the nightmare around them faded into a serene landscape.
“I did.” He couldn’t hold back a grin of his own. He’d been studying their dreameater link for weeks now, slowly getting a handle on how it works and how to banish the nightmares. Sora had been hesitant with the plan at first, not wanting Riku to worry over him so much. But when both he and Riku started arriving late to morning training with bags under their eyes from lack of sleep, the brunet relented.
He wasn’t always successful, sometimes unable to dive, sometimes arriving but not knowing how to make the nightmare go away. It took time, but Riku feels he’s finally getting the hang of it.
“So where did you send us to this time?” Sora asked, looking around them at the new dream Riku had conjured. Riku looked around too, he hadn’t consciously picked out this one so he wasn’t sure himself. But one look around the tall greenery and glowing flower fields and he knew.
“Oh, this is one of the dream worlds, the one where we had to find those ‘sound ideas’.”
“Really? Cool! This isn’t anything like the areas I visited there.” He walked toward one of the little hanging bell flowers, poking at the musical plant until it jingled sofly. “They’re so glow-y,” he mused.
“What kind of places did you go here?”
“I was in the sky!” Sora whirled back around toward him. He excitedly told Riku about the world. How squishy the clouds were when he walked on them and the different kinds of flying dreameaters that he saw. All the while, Riku listened.
Riku would treasure every moment like this. Both of them asleep, but still together with this unique connection that they have. This link that is only theirs. Riku would vanquish every one of Sora’s nightmares to spend time with him like this if given the chance.
The next morning Sora awoke before Riku, bright eyed and eager as he went through his short morning routine and came back only to see Riku still asleep.
Sora felt a grin stretch across his face and he stepped quietly over to his friend's bed. It’d been a while, but surely Riku was still ticklish. As kids, they’d get into tickle fights pretty often, until they’d both be red-faced from laughter.
“Ack!!” To Sora’s absolute delight, Riku was most definitely still ticklish. The older teenflinchied awake and squirmed under Sora’s fingers at his sides. But he wasn’t laughing. Sora continued his assault, determined to get him to laugh. Climbing up onto the bed to better reach the other boy as he tried to get away. Sora’s grin growing impossibly wide at the first sounds burbling from his friend.
“AH- Sor- AHH heh Sora! I can’t- I can’t breathe!” Riku managed to choke out during the onslaught. Sora, proud of this accomplishment, finally gave mercy and stopped his ribbing.
“Had to wake you up somehow!” he spoke, a smug grin still plastered on his face as he looked down on his now awake best friend. Riku was still catching his breath.
“What’s got you so giddy so early?” Riku asked, faking annoyance at his friend, but the brunet didn’t miss the smile in his voice.
“We’ve got a mission today, that’s what!”
“I don’t remember you being this excited for your last mission.” Riku teased as he pushed the other boy off of him so he could get out of bed.
“Rikuuu!” Sora protested behind him as he made his way to their shared bathroom.
They made their way down to the kitchens for a quick breakfast and then up to Yen Sid's study for a final briefing of the mission they’d been tasked with.
“Master.” They both greeted the old wizard when they arrived.
“Master Riku, Sora. Have you prepared for your mission?”
“Ready to go, Master.” Riku answered for them.
“Good. Now, the Good Fairies are counting on you for this one. You’ll be traveling to their home world.”
Stepping out of the gummiship, Riku squinted his eyes against the light. Sora found a clearing in the woods where he landed the ship. Far enough away from the castle town that it shouldn’t be discovered.
“It’ll be a walk, but I didn’t see anywhere closer.” Sora said, following Riku out of the ship.
“That’s fine. We better get going though. Got all the gear?”
“Yep! Tent and everything!” the brunet grinned, patting his pockets.
“Thank the fairies for magic pockets.” Riku laughed. Traveling would be much more difficult if they had to carry things in bags. Digging for potions in the middle of a battle would not be ideal.
They walked for a while, Riku following behind Sora as the excitable brunet hopped around inspecting any little thing that caught his eye. They both immediately pointed out the manicured trees. Every one of them trimmed into cubes, adding a character to the unique scenery around them.
While the scenery and company was nice, Riku didn’t forget that they were supposed to be here for a mission. Yen Sid had briefed them on the situation; heartless had been sighted closing in on the Castle Town and they’d been tasked with thinning them out.
Before long, they ran into their first group of heartless. Just a few Shadows and Soldiers that the two of them dispatched easily. Sora taking out the last one with a well placed fire spell as they continue on their way.
“You should save your mana, we don’t know how many there will be.” Riku warned.
“Ahh, I’ve got plenty. But I'll space out the spells, I guess.” Sora shrugged, turning back to grin at his friend.
They battled a few more groups as they walked, the village now in their sight. But as they got closer, they could see something was terribly wrong. The heartless had been growing more numerous as they’d traveled, the quiet fear Riku had as they approached was confirmed as heartless could clearly be seen chasing villagers around.
“Oh no!” Sora said before the both of them started running to help. A few of the heartless noticed the new arrivals and head their way. Good. Riku thought, better to be targeting them instead of the villagers.
And target them, they did. The two wielders were quickly overrun and surrounded. At his right, Sora cast a powerful thunder spell, wiping out a good portion of their forces, but they kept coming. The few guardsmen, who had been attempting to fight them off before, were now able to get the jump on them. The four of them easily able to cut through the throngs of shadows and soldiers.
The only trouble they had, coming from the elemental ones. Quick little things, flitting about in the air. Seemingly reminded that the guards were also a threat, a number of little things began swarming them again.
“Aahg!” Riku heard behind him, spinning around toward the voice. Quickly, Riku struck the heartless while they were distracted, the creatures dissolving into dark mist at the swing of his keyblade.
“All good?” He asked the man as he held a hand to help him to his feet.
The mad accepted the hand and stood, “Faring much better now that you and your friend are here. Those pests have been attacking the town here for days!”
“Aero!” Sora’s voice filled the air with the spell. Riku and the guard look toward the other teen. The spell created a whirlwind that gathered the remaining aerial heartless into one spot. The other guard backed away and lowered his blade to watch.
Now with one large target, Sora let loose a strong fire blast into the whirlwind. Even as far away as he was, Riku could clearly see the light from the flames dancing in Sora’s wide, focused eyes. Even using so many powerful spells that day, Sora didn’t even look tired.
As the flames and wind died down, they looked around the area to be certain that they’d cleared the area. When no more heartless could be found, Riku let out a breath and dismissed his keyblade. Sora doing the same before jogging over, the other guard following him.
“Got ‘em!” Sora exclaimed excitedly, pumping a fist in the air.
“Sure did! How are you not tired?” He asked as Sora closed the distance, stopping in front of him.
“Hmm?” He furrowed his brows, tilting his head in question before grinning again. “Oh, are you tired?” Confusion giving way to a teasing lilt causing Riku to splutter.
“Heh, you wish. I just know I’d be exhausted if I’d used that much high level magic so quickly.”
Their conversation was cut short with a short gasp of pain. Turning back toward the guards that had assisted in the fight, Riku could now see one of them was injured. Holding his side as the other man supported his weight. Beside him, Sora was quick to react, rushing to the man while digging through his pocket.
“That looks painful. Here, this will help,” Sora offered the man a potion.
Both Sora and Riku were taken aback when instead of accepting, the man swatted the bottle out of his hand, it shattering on the ground. “Don’t give me your vile fae concoctions!” He shouted, face scrunched in disgust as he glared at the brunet.
“Hey! What-” Sora started
“George-” The other man started but the angry injured man at his side cut him off.
“It’s these evil fae that are plaguing the kingdom! Wicked magics and sorcery! You saw what that boy did! Next we know, he’ll turn that sorcery on us!”
“Hey, I’m not-” This time Riku interrupted him, placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking his head when Sora turned to look at him. Together they backed off, leaving the two guards to make their way inside the walled town.
“Guess these people don’t like magic,” Sora said after the men had disappeared behind the wall.
“Looks like it. No big deal.” Riku responded. Used to world inhabitants not particularly being comfortable in his company. The two of them stayed there for a few minutes longer, watching to see if any more heartless would come for this area, before moving on.
“You two!”
They looked back at the entryway, the other guard having returned. Riku took an instinctive step back, thinking for a moment that they’d overstayed their welcome even though they stayed outside the town. The man seemed to have noticed their wariness, as he slowed his approach, raising his hands in the air. “No quarrel, strangers. I just wanted to thank you.”
“Oh! It’s no problem, sir.” Sora spoke first.
“Just doing our job.” Riku added.
“Yes, well, we probably wouldn’t have made it had you two not come along. Fae or not, we’d have been dead men. So, thank you.”
“Right. I’m glad we made it in time. Is your friend okay?” Sora asked.
“He’ll be fine, too stubborn to let a flesh wound get the better of him.” The man chuckled. “I apologize for his words earlier. Everyone’s a bit on edge.”
“So we gathered.” Riku said. “Have these ‘fae’ been a problem here?”
“Oh, yes. There’s talk that the Evil Fairy Queen has returned. There’s been many attacks like this since.”
“Fairy Queen?” Sora repeated, he and Riku sharing a look.
“Do you know where she’d be? We think we can stop these attacks.” Riku asked, determined.