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Sora’s family lived in a wooden house that made a lot of noise, especially at night. Or maybe nighttime was just when the noise became obvious, considering how quiet everything else was. It could be a bit spooky sometimes, so Riku was not surprised when Sora suddenly stood in the doorframe. He was clutching Chibi, the stuffed cat his grandmother had made from fabric scraps for his birthday. It was bright and colorful in the daylight, but in the dark hallway it looked grey and dull.
„Riku?“ Sora’s voice was much quieter than normal. “Are you awake?”
Riku sat the book he had been reading down on the blanket. Technically, he should probably be asleep already, but it wasn’t like Sora’s Parents had to know that he was still awake. “What’s up, Sora?”
“When are Mama and Papa gonna be back?”
He sighed. Why did Sora have to be so annoying sometimes? He was only a year younger than Riku, and Riku stayed at Sora’s house whenever his Dad worked late, which was pretty often. Then again, Riku supposed it was natural. Sora didn’t even go to school yet, and therefore he was still pretty much a baby.
“They aren’t back yet,” Riku told him. “Go back to sleep. They’ll be there tomorrow.”
“But there’s a monster under my bed!”, Sora whined.
Riku groaned. “There are no monsters, Sora…”
“How can you tell if you have never seen one?”
“Have you ever seen one?”
“Yes!”
Sora prodded into what was pretty much Riku’s room at Sora’s house and sat his stuffed cat aside. “In my room, there is this biiig, bad dinosaur that has teeth as big as your head!” He stretched his arms as far above his head as he could to show Riku just how big this dinosaur was. “It tried to eat me!”
On one hand, there were no monsters. On the other hand, Sora seemed genuinely upset, and Riku didn’t want to chase him away. He was annoying sometimes, but he was also Riku’s best friend.
“You probably just had a bad dream,” Riku said. “Do you want to stay here for a while?”
Sora’s face lit up, and he took his stuffed animal from the ground again. Riku held up the covers for him, so he could slip under them, as Sora plodded over to Riku’s bed. He climbed in, and then almost immediately started snuggling.
Riku sighed. They were probably getting too old for this, but Sora loved cuddling, hugging or even just holding hands. Maybe it was just because he was still little. But as long as Sora felt a bit better and would finally stop being annoying, Riku didn’t care. He even wrapped an arm around the younger one, before turning back to his book. He still wanted to finish this one last chapter before he turned off the light and went to sleep.
“What are you reading?”, Sora suddenly asked, peeking at the page curiously.
Why couldn’t he just read in peace… “It’s about a monster who lives in a forest hidden away from the world, but it’s very lonely,” Riku explained. “So one day, it leaves looking for a friend.” He hoped that would satisfy Sora’s curiosity.
“Does it find one?”
“I don’t know yet,” Riku said. “I haven’t read that far.”
“Oh.”
Sora turned onto his side to look into the book a little bit better. He couldn’t read yet, but there were some pictures too – not that those would tell him much about the story. “Can you read loudly?” He asked, already giving Riku a puppy pout. “Pleeeeease?”
Riku shrugged. He usually preferred to read quietly to himself. Not only was he much faster like this, but he also didn’t have to focus on pronouncing everything right at the same time. But for Sora, he would – even though he knew that it would not make Sora shut up. He tended to ask a lot of questions when his father told him and Riku a bedtime story.
He cleared his throat and started to read. “ One day, the monster came to a big meadow. There was a castle in the middle of it. Many flowers grew on the meadow, and the castle looked nice and tidy. ‘It is beautiful,’ the monster thought. ‘This must be where the king and the queen of this land live.’ It turned back to the woods… ”
“The castle does look beautiful,” Sora commented, pointing at one of the pictures. It showed a palace in bright colors, with lots of flowers in front of it, and a red roof. “Why doesn’t the monster just go and look at it?”
“Well, think about what the king and the queen would do,” Riku answered. “They have many knights that they would order to hunt the monster.”
“The poor monster…”
“Do you want me to keep reading?”, Riku asked.
“Yes!”
Riku nodded. “ But then, its belly rumbled. The monster was hungry. ”
“Is it going to eat the king and the queen?!”
“You’ll see,” Riku sighed. “ ’There must be something to eat at the castle,’ the monster thought. ‘Well, taking a look can’t hurt. They just mustn’t see me.’ And so, the monster crawled across the meadow, careful to stay close to the bottom as to not be seen by anyone as it approached the castle. ”
Riku flipped a page. There was a drawing of the monster crawling on the next one.
Sora giggled. “It looks kinda funny,” he said, pointing at the picture. He wasn’t wrong about that – it did look ridiculous. “And the monster kinda looks like Chibi.”
The only thing about the monster resembling Sora’s stuffed cat was that it was very colorful, at least in Riku’s opinion. He decided to not comment on it and instead just continued reading. “ It was about lunch time. All the castle’s knights were eating, so no one saw the monster coming. ”
“What was for lunch?”, Sora asked curiously.
“Uh…” Riku quickly glanced over the page. “It doesn’t say what the knights have for lunch…”
“Maybe they have fish’n’chips,” Sora said. “Oh, or maybe pancakes! Oh, do you think Mama is going to make some for us in the morning?”
Kio, Sora’s mother, made the best pancakes on the entire island if you asked Riku, and she always made some when he stayed at their house on the weekend. Sometimes even in the morning. “Maybe.”
“I can’t wait!” Sora yawned. “Now I’m hungry though…”
They had already brushed their teeth. Besides, Riku didn’t want to get up again. Even though Sora was old enough to be able to sneak into the kitchen on his own, knowing him and his fear of the monster that supposedly lived under his bed, he would absolutely drag Riku into this.
“Can’t you wait until tomorrow?”
“Nope!” Sora shook his head. “I’m hungry now.”
“Then go to the kitchen and get yourself something!”
“But Riiiikuuuuuu,” Sora pouted, “what about the monster?”
“I thought it lived under your bed, not in the kitchen!”
“But what if it comes out to get me?”
Riku sighed. He had been right. But he was not going to give in because that would mean having to get up again! “Why can’t you just get yourself something? You know where everything is, and besides, the monster under your bed was probably just a nightmare…”
“But you’re the thing nightmares fear!”
“I’m… What?”
Sora grinned. “You’re so silly every monster and every nightmare runs from you!”
“You take that back!”
Riku slammed his book shut and tried to catch Sora, unsure of what to do with him but he could come up with something once he had him.
Unfortunately, Sora was faster. He rolled out of the bed – Riku had to catch himself on his arms to avoid falling out of it – and ran to the door, where he finally turned around, giggled and stuck his tongue out at Riku. “Bleh!”
“Oh, just you wait…” He was so going to get him for that!
Riku rolled himself out of the bed, which probably didn’t look as cool as he would have liked, and took on the chase. He was faster than Sora, which was a given, because he was the older one and therefore usually better at everything.
But Sora had a considerable lead on his side, and he also knew where he was going. More than once, when Riku almost had him, he suddenly changed his direction, and Riku had to turn back and catch up to him again. He chased him through the hallway, the living room, the entrance until finally, he managed to corner Sora in the kitchen. Riku blocked the door, so he wouldn’t get out again.
To his surprise, Sora didn’t seem to be looking how to get past him however. He just giggled more. “See? Getting up wasn’t that difficult!”
“You…” Sora had tricked him.
Well, he wouldn’t get away with that either! Riku charged at him, and even though Sora attempted to jump to the side, he managed to wrap his arm around him. But because Sora wasn’t directly in his way anymore, he ended up staggering, and then falling, pulling Sora to the ground with him.
Fortunately, they landed on the rug. Still, the fall hurt! “Ouch…” Well, at least Riku didn’t hit his head.
“Are you alright?” he immediately asked Sora, who was laying on top of him. Hopefully he was…
Sora lifted his head and smiled widely. “I’m okay,” he confirmed. “Thank you, Riku!”
“Thank me, huh?” Well, he supposed he had protected Sora from the fall. Then again, it was technically his fault that they had fallen in the first place.
“Are you okay?”, Sora asked.
“I’m alright.” And glad Sora wasn’t hurt. “Don’t worry about me.”
“You sure?”
Riku sighed. He was not going to ask him how many fingers he was waving in front of his face the next second, was he? “I’m fine, Sora,” he assured. “ Really. ” At most, he was going to have a bruise the next morning.
“That’s great!!” Sora clapped his little hands. “Come on, let’s get some candies!”
Oh. So that was why he really wanted Riku to come to the kitchen with him… “You know your mom put them into the cupboard so you can’t just keep nibbling all day and night! Plus, she’ll probably get mad if she finds out…”
“But she doesn’t have to know!”
Just like she didn’t have to know Sora and Riku were still up…
Sora grabbed the stepladder to get to the sweets in the cupboard, but couldn’t lift it – it was too heavy for him. He started dragging it, but even that didn’t go smoothly…
“Lemme help you with that!”
The stepladder was heavy, although Riku was pretty sure he could have carried it all by himself, but this way it was much easier than alone. Together, they managed to maneuver it to the cupboard, and Sora climbed onto it to get a handful of those sickenly sweet soft foamballs, his current favorite candy. Riku was surprised he didn’t take the whole bag.
“There,” he said as he climbed back down, the treat already on its way into his mouth. “You want some too?”
“Maybe one…” Riku didn’t like those candies very much. They were just way too sweet.
“Here!” Sora gave him two, and Riku couldn’t help but smile. That was so like him, always so eager to share with his friends. Even though he was annoying at times, Riku was happy to be his friend.
“Thank you.”
“No…” Sora had to yawn. “Problem…”
Riku was tired too, especially after their little chase earlier. Maybe it was finally time to go to bed after all, even though he of course wanted to stay up a little longer. There was just so much they could do while Sora’s parents were still away… Maybe another time.
“Hey, can you read the rest of the story for me, please?”
Riku smiled. “Of course!” How could he say no?
“ And so, the princess and the monster became fast friends. It turns out that this time they had tea together would only be the first of many to come ,” Riku concluded the chapter, and closed the book.
Sora had become unusually quiet ever since they had returned to Riku’s room, he had picked up his stuffed cat that had landed on the floor during their little scuffle, and snuggled into bed alongside him. He was probably just tired.
“Riku?”
“Hm?”
“Do you think the monster under my bed just wants a friend too?”
“Wha-… Er…” What was he supposed to tell him? Sora probably just imagined the monster anyways, that’s just what little kids do. But he probably wouldn’t accept that as an answer. “Hmmm…”
What would Dad say?
“Maybe.”
“Hmm…”
Riku put the book on the nightstand, careful to not disturb Sora. “Do you want to go back to your room and ask it?” Then he would have a little more space to sleep. Besides, Sora often tried to cuddle in his sleep, which was embarrassing. Riku was too grown up for this!
“Sora?”
He didn’t get an answer. Instead, he was met with a quiet sigh from his side. Sora had fallen asleep.
Great, what was Riku supposed to do now? If anyone found out about this, then he would be the laughingstock in his class in no time! But then again, he didn’t want to wake Sora up, not now that he was finally asleep and had stopped being annoying. Maybe he could take his book, sneak into Sora’s room and keep reading…
But then his plans were utterly ruined because Sora started cuddling. It was almost as if he wasn’t actually asleep…
“Sora?”
Again, no answer. Not even a quiet noise.
Riku sighed, before he turned to turn off the light on his nightstand. Fine. He’d go to sleep to then, and Sora would get what he probably wanted – again – and embarrass Riku in the process. But then again… He probably needed someone to protect him from the darkness, bad dreams and the monster under his bed he clearly had made up but insisted and probably believed was real regardless.
“You’re the thing nightmares fear.”
Even though it was ridiculous, it made Riku feel proud in a way. He took it as a compliment, despite Sora’s reasoning. Besides, if he could chase the bad dreams away from Sora, then he gladly would do so.
After all, it wasn’t like his classmates had to know.