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~~✨Scala Ad Caelum✨~~
Sora was simply standing there, enjoying the beautiful blue sky and the fluffy clouds. He always imagined that his hair was a fluffy cloud because of how soft it was, he would often imagine he was the sky itself. He also enjoyed the towns in Scala Ad Caelum, they were so pretty and white, always so clean and never small. The people weren’t as delightful but that was alright with Sora, he’d just be the nice person they needed. Sora always did that, be the thing people needed, he didn’t ever realize it but it was rather exhausting. A long time ago an old friend once told him, “every world is connected by one great big sky.”
Sora would always take that to heart and think about it from time to time. The friend who said that was his one and only Riku. His grounder, the one who’d always bring him back down to earth when he was lost among the vast vast sky. “Riku…” Sora muttered under his breath. His heart squeezed and his breath quickened whenever he thought about the tall gray-haired man. He never understood this feeling, although he only felt it around him. He looked up at the sky and wondered what life would be like if things didn’t happen the way they did. What if Riku was never taken by the darkness? What if the islands were never destroyed? What if they had been able to adventure the world together on their small raft? Sora often thought these thoughts when he was alone.
When given the chance sora could easily just think his life away, a slave to things that could have been and that couldn’t have. He was obsessed with thinking, though he may not look it or act like it, he was a very intelligent person. He figured the happy go lucky and naive facade would help add to the fact that he was something everyone needed. He quickly remembered that he had to go, Donald and Goofy were asking to go to twilight town anyway. He said he would meet them there. Scala ad caelum shrunk into the distance as sora traveled on the gummi ship back to twilight town. Before he would forget he placed a sticky note on the windshield of highwind that stated: “text riku :)”.
~~✨Twilight town✨~~
Sora had reached the destination he was intending to be at. He caught up with Donald and Goofy at the beloved bistro that uncle scrooge owned. Sora could see that the two were enjoying tarts and drinks. Riku immediately entered his mind when he saw one of the green tarts. “His eyes are green,” he thought. In his mind he gazed upon the tall man, wondering what he may have been up to.
“What’s wrong sora?” Donald asked, recognizing the far off expression on his face.
“Oh nothing,” Sora put his hands behind his head, “I'm just hungry and ready to dig in! What have you guys got?” He asked, trying to bring the focus away from Riku.
“We got some, um, green oople tarts?” goofy said looking expectantly at donald.
“Apple, apple tarts goofy.” Donald said, annoyed by the silly dog.
“Are ye enjoying the food laddies? Aye sora! Thanks fer taken care to join us! Care fer a tart?” Uncle scrooge appeared with little chef in his hat.
“That's all right! I’ll just share with donald.”
“Oh no you won’t!”
“Oh seriously?? Come on!”
“You’re not gonna have it!”
“Fine…” Sora let out a grumble.
This reminded him of that one time when they wouldn’t land in the deep jungle to look for Riku and Kairi. Donald and Sora just argued while goofy tried to diffuse the situation. Sora ended up reaching for the controls and crash landing them on the forested world. They ended up finding a loose gummi block and so Donald and Goofy agreed to stay to look for the king. Sora always thought that Donald was a bit too controlling but he honestly didn’t care. They were friends so he made sure that he would always be safe.
“Oh hey Riku!” Donald announced to the rest of the trio.
Sora turned around and sure enough there he was. A tall boy with gray hair and green eyes was walking toward him with his usual intimidating face. Anyone who knew him personally though would know that he was a big ol’ softie. His face lightened when he saw Sora and he was excited to greet the shorter boy. Of course he wasn’t expecting to be bombarded with a giant hug. He knew this is what Sora would immediately do anyway but he still never expected it. It always took him by surprise, it was a pleasant one at least. Riku never really truly liked being touched but Sora was different. He didn’t mind being hugged by him. He knew why but he always rejected the thought, because he knew Sora wouldn’t see him that way.
“Hellooooooooo riku?? You okay there buddy?” Sora asked when he saw his face lost in thought.
“Huh? Oh, yeah no I’m fine” Riku said, trying to pull off a cheesy smile.
“Sweet! I’ve missed you! Where ya been?”
“Uh places, I've just been wandering around to be honest.”
“Places huh? Like what kind?”
“I don’t even remember.”
“You’re no fun” Sora pouted.
Riku laughed at the smaller boy’s response. It was hard for him to remember things he didn’t find important, and when there was only one really important thing in his life everything pretty much faded away. The smaller boy looked expectantly at him because he was waiting for a response.
“Really? Me? No fun?” Riku smirked.
“Yeah! You are super boring, oh! I know! We should go somewhere together!” Sora blurted.
“Hey what about eating food?” Donald asked.
“You weren’t gonna share your tart with me anyway.” Sora stated plainly while sticking out his tongue.
“Okay then? Where exactly should we go?”
“I was thinking somewhere along the clocktower. It’d be so cool to be that high up in the sky!”
Riku knew that sora adored the sky. He could tell that it was his favorite thing. The thought of being that close to the sky was exciting to Sora, no wonder he loved being in the gummi ship. Although Sora felt a bit off today. He wasn’t sure why or how but he just put it off as his paranoia. Sora walked quickly and quietly ahead of Riku on the way to the clocktower. It was weird that he was so quiet, he usually was so full of energy and would be ready to talk whenever he could. Today he just seemed… tired. Riku wondered what could possibly be on Sora’s mind. He just decided to keep walking with Sora until they got to the clocktower. The silence lasted for what felt like hours.
Once they climbed the clocktower Sora got out two ice creams. Everyone had decided to put a cooler full of them up on the clock tower since they went up there and ate so many so often. He handed one to Riku and stayed mostly silent the whole time. Riku was starting to get worried at this point.
“Hey are you… okay?” Riku stated, trying to make sure that the worry couldn’t be heard.
“Yeah I'm alright!” Sora tried his best to put on a cheesy smile, but riku could see right through it.
“Something’s bothering you, I know it is.”
Riku saw Sora look away, probably trying to think of his next move or lie or anything that could get Riku to get off his back. Riku frowned, trying to understand what was going on. Sora just continued to look away. Riku looked down to take a bite of his ice cream that was already starting to melt. He hadn’t realized how hot it had gotten outside. He looked back up to see tears streaming down Sora's face while he sobbed, looking as far away from Riku as he possibly could. Riku didn’t know what to do.
“Hey, why are you crying?” Riku asked, while frantically trying to figure out what to do with his hands.
“I- i’m exhausted.” Sora continued to sob. “So much has happened, I have to be something for so many people, plenty of people could be disappointed in me right now, you probably don’t even like me, I'm so tired and I don’t know what I should do.”
“I’m sorry, I don't know either, I’m not really good with,” Riku made a motion with his hands, “feelings.”
“It’s okay, it's not your fault Riku” Sora quickly tried to shut down his emotions and tried to pull another cheesy smile.
Riku could tell that Sora was just trying to shut down. Then he realized one of the things he said had more weight over the others. “You probably don’t even like me,” a thought that Riku felt everyday, he was stunned that Sora felt that way. Riku quickly slid over to Sora's side of the clocktower and gave him a big bear hug. Sora hesitated to hug back, but he let his emotions flow again and then continued to sob. Sora hugged riku and just cried on his shoulder. Riku had no idea what to do at this point.
“I-it’s okay, I'm here, I'll always be here.”
This was the only thing riku could think of saying. He didn’t really know what else to do. How else could he possibly make him happier? He thought of something but he wasn’t sure of its success rate. He decided to act upon it and opened a portal to destiny islands.
~~✨Destiny Islands✨~~
Riku carried Sora through the portal, leaving the ice creams behind. They went to the smaller island with the paopu tree. Riku laid sora down on the tree that they both loved so very much. Then he climbed the tree as well.
He climbed up higher than needed and Sora didn’t realize it as he was calming down. Sora watched the sunset as Riku plucked one of the star-shaped fruits from the tree. He jumped back down to join Sora who was now sitting up and staring at the sunset. Riku held his hand out, offering the paopu fruit he had picked. Sora looked down at his hand and his entire face flushed. Riku stared at his red face, realizing what he was doing his face reddened as well.
“W-what are you doing?” Sora asked, bewildered.
“I want to share a paopu fruit with you, so our destinies will be intertwined.” Riku said confidently.
“Why.”
“I realized you said something earlier that didn’t make sense to me. C’mon, I know you want to try it.” Riku joked.
“What did I say?”
“You said that I probably didn’t even like you, I want to prove that you’re wrong.”
“W-what?” Sora looked away trying to hide his blushing face.
Riku broke the paopu in half and offered one half to Sora. Sora took one half and it looked like he was contemplating something. Then he brought the paopu to his mouth. He sniffed it first, because he had never smelled it before. It smelled sweet. Sora took a bite from the fruit and looked expectantly at riku. Riku smiled and brought the star-shaped fruit to his mouth. He took a big bite. It was a very tasty fruit, the two boys enjoyed the rest of it while watching the sunset. Finally the stars had come up. They were always amazing to see from the islands.
Riku looked up to Sora, only to see he was already staring at him. They were both fairly silent trying to find the right words to say. Riku was just about to muster up the courage to say something when,
“Riku, I think I might like you.”
“Well of course you like me, I'm your best friend.” Riku said, fearing that he meant more, because it would mean his feelings were requited, and he didn’t know what to do if they were.
“I… I mean like more than as a friend.”
Riku was now completely short circuiting, his entire face was red and sora was totally freaked out. Sora didn't know how to respond to a riku that couldn’t think for himself at the moment. So out of pure impulsiveness Sora grabbed Riku by his jacket and kissed him. After he realized what he had done he apologized a billion times.
“Im sorry! Sorry!” Sora waved his hands in the air frantically and was practically screaming the same phrase over and over again.
Riku was still figuring out what he should say to that because he had no idea what to do. He looked away, embarrassment covering his face in a bright red colour.
“C-could you do that again please?” Riku said as quietly as he could, hoping Sora might not pick up on it.
But he did. It was like he had unlocked some super hearing ability and could hear even the smallest of heartbeats. Sora scooted over as close as he possibly could. He hesitated, but he put his hand on Riku’s shoulder, pulled him closer, stared into his deep green eyes, and kissed him. After a while it was getting hard to breathe so the both of them pulled away.
“Wow” Riku stated
Sora kept staring at him expecting something.
“I lo-” Riku was about to say
“I really really like you!” Sora blurted.
The two ended up enjoying the silence and watched the stars together. They’ve been inseparable ever since.
The End