Work Text:
It has been almost two months now, Riku reflected. Two months since Sora had disappeared one day out of the blue. Nobody had known where he went or when. His mother had woken up and had gone to wake him for breakfast to find his room empty. No note or anything. He was just gone. Even Riku, one of his closest friends, had no idea where he could have gone.
Riku laid on his childhood bed, staring at the faded glow-in-the-dark moon and stars on his ceiling. Many years ago, what felt like a lifetime ago, Sora had bought them on impulse, showing up at Riku's doorstep. He had announced he had just the perfect thing to spruce up the other's room, as it was incredibly "boring" and needed it.
Riku had let him do what he wanted with a smirk as he watched the boy struggle. Not even with the added height of the dining room chair had Sora easily been able to reach the ceiling. But he persisted for the next hour until all the cheap glow-in-the-dark stickers were up there.
His heart ached at the memory, as it often did when he thought of Sora.
Everybody he knew had searched for him endlessly, but every time, it ended up hopeless. Riku was sure he checked all Sora's favorite spots around Radiant Garden, Twilight Town, Destiny Islands, and every other place they'd visited at least a dozen times at different times of day. Kairi would collapse next to him, exhausted, as she recounted her efforts with Naminé and Aqua. Ventus would text him, as would Roxas and Xion, and sometimes, even Lea.
Nothing. Nobody had seen him.
The only way off Destiny Islands was by boat, but every fisherman and sailor swore up and down they hadn't seen Sora, nor had anybody ferried him to the mainland, where the others resided.
So, if he wasn't on Destiny Islands, counting the play island, and wasn't in any of the mainland's many cities and towns that he frequented in the past, then where could he be? Where could Sora have possibly gone?
It was so frustrating that Riku could almost tear his hair out. He wanted nothing more than to reach out, with all his heart, and find Sora. But it was useless. He couldn't. He didn't have any special abilities or powers to do that.
Despite everything they had been through up to this point, Riku couldn't help but feel like just another useless, ordinary boy. He rolled onto his side, curling into a ball, clinging to his pillow as he buried his face into it. Emotions whirled around inside of him, none of them positive, as tears came to his eyes, and like so many nights, he felt a weak sob escape past his lips. Soon, he would devolve into pointless sobbing.
And then there was a noise at his window, the sound of it scraping open. His heart leaped into his throat, and he froze. He was used to jumping into action, to defend himself or somebody else, but a presence washed over him, rooting him to the spot.
Evil .
Whatever it was, it was pure evil. And it was opening his window. He had to will himself to move, but before he could do that, the window stopped moving. And then there was no sound. Nothing at all. He was going to die. Whatever it was, it was going to kill him. And he would die without a fight. It was humiliating and terrifying. There was nothing he could do to fight against it. Riku squeezed his eyes shut, feeling his throat constrict.
"Riku," a soft and raspy and completely unmistakable voice called out, claws scraping against paint on a wall, "I know you're awake. I can hear it."
Riku forgot his fear then, forgot everything as he sat up fast, eyes rimmed with red and eyebags heavy as he stared at the boy sitting on his windowsill.
"Sora," Riku called out brokenly, throwing off the blankets as he crawled desperately towards the brunette. But he was stopped in his tracks, gripping the edge of his mattress as he stared Sora down.
His skin, usually tanned from days under the sun, had paled considerably and had taken on a deathly tone. He was skinnier than when he had last seen him, looking hollow and malnourished, losing the pinkness to his cheeks, which were sunken. His hair was a disheveled mess, even more so than normal. Fingers clawed, fangs poking out through lips that were pulled into a small, pained smile. Eyes, usually so vibrantly blue and full of life, were empty, soulless, and so devoid of life.
"Riku..." Sora said again, shifting under the heavy weight of the other's gaze, "I don't have much time- I have- Well, there's too much to tell, but I really needed to see you. One last time."
"Where have you been-" Riku suddenly snapped, finally pushing himself off the bed and rushing toward the window. He was stopped when Sora quickly held up a hand, panic written all over his face.
"Please- Please," he said, voice croaking as he struggled to get the words out, "Please don't come any closer. It's hard enough resisting the urge to hurt without you being all up on me."
A totally out-of-character thing for Sora to ever say - the boy was a chronic personal bubble invader, and here he was, wanting space? Riku almost didn't want to listen to him, but when Riku took a step forward defiantly, Sora's face twisted in pain, his mouth gaping open to reveal dangerously sharp fangs. The more Riku was seeing Sora, the more the pieces were falling together, though he so wanted to not believe in what he was seeing.
Riku took a step back and then another, his heart hammering in his chest, threatening to burst out at any moment.
Once more, Sora assumed a smile, trying to appear normal and like his old self, even as when he looked at Riku, his eyes flashed momentarily red that definitely could not be mistaken for a trick of the light.
"Your heart's beating so fast, Riku," Sora murmured, eyes lidded even more as he stared intently at the silver-haired boy, who tensed under such a predatory look. But then Sora was shaking his head wildly, slapping at it with his hands. And from the sound of the slaps, the sting of it, Riku was sure it should have left red marks, but when those clawed hands pulled away, nothing had changed.
"You don't need to be so scared," the brunette rasped, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just wanted to see you."
"Right... So, you've said... But... But I don't understand," Riku said, unable to find the words to say.
"Yea, I was expecting that," Sora laughed, placing his hands behind his head in a familiar pose, "It's... Difficult to explain. But do you remember the night we were walking back to the ferry at Twilight Town?"
Riku nodded numbly. That was the day before Sora had disappeared.
"I noticed someone following us. He obviously didn't want to be caught because you hadn't noticed, and it was a complete accident that I saw him. But it was when I had dropped my crepe." It was an amalgamation, Riku remembered almost fondly now, of chocolate, strawberry, actual strawberries, whipped cream, and a whole bunch of other things. "You offered yours, said you weren't hungry anymore," Sora recalled an obviously fond memory for himself as well, "You were lying. I knew you were. And I felt bad. But we couldn't go back for another, or we'd be late for the last ferry back to the islands..."
Riku, as much as he enjoyed the memory, didn't know where this was heading. But he waited patiently, or as patient as he could, holding his tongue.
"I couldn't leave the crepe on the ground. I had turned my back on you, just for a second, to throw it in the nearest trash, and then I saw, in a reflection. A pair of golden eyes staring at you from the alleyway you were standing in front of. It was hard to act natural as I turned around to face you... I just took a quick peek over your shoulder and saw... A man. And that's when it hit. I've seen this man. Everywhere we went, I saw him out of the corner of my eye. He was following us, stalking us."
"Why didn't you say anything!?" Riku questioned, his voice pitching as he placed a hand over his heart, "If you knew he was following us, why didn't you say anything when we got back to the islands?"
"Because... I wanted to handle this on my own. I wanted to protect you," Sora mumbled, looking away, "Like you've always done for me. So, the next day, I left before anybody woke up and explored all of Twilight Town. And then I met the guy. He knew I had seen him. He was after you, Riku." Sora's voice cracked here, his face pinching as he didn't know whether to feel angry or sad. "He wanted you, and I couldn't let that happen. It had only meant to be a talk, to figure out what happened, but then it ended up turning into a fight. A fight... I lost."
His hands had dropped from his head as emotion overcame him, staring at his palms as he couldn't even cry.
"And, then, he turned me into this thing."
"A vampire."
"A spawn, technically," Sora spat, anger that Riku hardly ever witnessed, "Is what he called it. I'm not a full vampire yet, not until he makes me. And not until I drink human blood. But-" And just as quickly, that anger faded into pride, into hope. "I haven't drank blood at all! Any- Not for any human or animal! I couldn't bring myself to do it despite him trying to force me to. I refused to succumb to my nature!"
He stared at Riku as if expecting praise, and never one to deny that look when Sora gave it to him, Riku just swallowed down his nerves and said, "That's really good, Sora, seriously. I'm sure it wasn't easy-" Sora interrupted to confirm that it wasn't at all, "And now that you're back, maybe we can do something about this? Maybe Yen Sid or Mickey can help-"
Sora shook his head. "He... Has control over me, Riku. He can make me do things against my will, and the only reason he hasn't is because... I think he wants to see me succumb willingly. And I won't. But... I know he plans to use me against you. And I can't let him do that either. I can't let myself hurt anybody."
"And you won't- I don't- I don't understand." Riku really was trying to wrap his mind around this, and he wanted nothing more than to bring Sora into his arms and hold him, telling him everything would be alright, but he couldn't even do that. "We can help. I can."
"No," Sora smiled sadly, shaking his head, "You can't. Even right now, it's taking everything in me not to attack you, not to bite into your neck... And... Well. Yeah. You smell so good, and I'm so hungry..." Saliva gathered at the corner of Sora's lips and pooled there before dripping down. "It hurts..." He started to curl into himself, mouth opening and closing in gasps, "It hurts so bad."
"Then drink my blood!" Riku suddenly blurted out, taking a step towards Sora finally and then another, quickly closing the distance between the two of them as the other continued to ramble.
"Can't... Can't give in. It'll give him what he wants. And I can't hurt you. You- You mean too much to me, Riku, please. Don't make this harder than it already is-" Sora is gripping at his hair, dragging claws down his face. He knew he should have never come. He knew he should have just disappeared without a trace, but he couldn't leave without seeing Riku, his beloved Riku. And that man knew that he was taking advantage of Sora's love for Riku, and the brunette had willingly walked into that trap, but that was as far as this was going.
Sora would not be a pawn in his game to get to Riku, not any longer. Not after tonight.
When Riku grabbed his hands, prying them away from his face and holding them in his hands, Sora was shocked by the warmth. It had been so long since he felt it. Similarly, Riku was shocked by the coldness. Sora, who had usually radiated heat, was now deathly cold.
The silver-haired boy opened his mouth to say something, anything, but Sora cut him off. "I'm going to kill myself."
It was said so ordinarily, so easily, like he was saying something mundane and not world-changing. Like he hadn't just told Riku he was going to off himself.
"In the morning," Sora said, "I'm going to go to the Play Islands and watch the sunrise. I'll leave my clothes there on the beach like they got washed up or something. I'll make it look like I drowned or was lost at sea. So nobody has to continue worrying about me."
"You can't," is all Riku manages to get out in the face of this insane plan. You can't leave me, he wants to say, I just got you back. You can't go. Please. I need you, Sora. We'll figure something out. Please don't go.
"I'll die without ever having hurt anybody, without hurting you, because I'm not drinking your blood, Riku. It's the only way. I can't-"
And then he's pulling Sora up from the windowsill into a hug, burying his face into his friend's hair.
"It's not the only way," he says, fists clenched into the back of Sora's shirt, "We'll figure something out, alright? Stop talking stupid."
Sora seemed to be thinking about it, his own hands pressed against Riku's back, his nose buried into the other's neck. But as the silence dragged on, Riku realized he missed something critical. One of Sora's hands had traveled up to his hair, nestled there, while the other started to curl into his shirt.
Sora was too quiet. Too still.
No heartbeat.
One of his fingers twitched as claws started to dig into his skin, gripping tightly at his hair.
A hot breath against his neck, the sound of panting in his ear.
"Riku..." Sora breathed out against his neck, fangs grazing flesh.
But as quickly as it happened, Sora was suddenly thrashing in his hold, pushing himself away. Which he managed to do, stumbling back as he tripped over his feet, crashing into the ground shortly after.
He rolled onto his side, chest heaving, a look of pure disgust and guilt on his face as he stared up at Riku, eyes red. And then he rolled over onto his stomach, bracing himself with his hands and knees. He didn't vomit, but he attempted to, dry-heaving as spit dribbled from his lips and pooled onto the floor underneath him.
When Riku bent down to help, Sora snapped at him to back away. And he did. Realizing he really wasn't making anything better.
"You see?" Sora asked, still in the same spot, "I'm a monster. I deserve to die."
Riku refused to believe that. He refused to believe Sora was a monster, and he refused even more to believe he deserved to die.
"The real monster is the man who turned you. And if you die, what do you think is going to happen to him? To him ?"
"You know about him," Sora reasoned, "You can go to the King for help. And then you can track him down." Slowly, the boy turned over, leaning back on his hands as he continued to heave. "That's one of the reasons why I also came to you. To warn you." And because Sora so desperately craved being near Riku after watching him for the past month or so but not daring to go any closer, unable at the time to properly control his urge.
"And don't you think the King will ask how I know about this?"
"I don't expect you to hide what happened to me from the others," Sora argued back, "Tell them all what he did. What happened to me. But not my mom or the villagers or anybody else. Let them believe I died human. That in my final moments... I wasn't some blood-craving demon."
"Your heart and mind are mind up, aren't they?" Riku asked, feeling his own resolve being worn down. How could he make Sora do anything he didn't want to do? But how could he let Sora kill himself? He couldn't.
"Yes," Sora said, "I've long come to terms with what I have to do."
"Rethink it," Riku pleaded, "Just... Just rethink it, okay? You're here now, with me." He kneeled to his knees, "I can protect you. Like I've always had. I promise. We'll take you to King Mickey's right away... And get the help you need. And then we'll deal with this guy. Please?" He knew his words were having some effect on Sora, whose own resolve was slowly crumbling.
"You've never been this pushy," Sora cracks a joke instead, pulling his knees to his chest.
"You've never done something this stupid," Riku counters, though his joke falls flat as he's unable to push the emotion needed into it. He isn't like Sora, who can crack a joke and smile in bad situations.
"Nah, I'm sure I can count the number of times I've done something more stupid."
"Sora..."
"I... I seriously don't want to hurt anybody, Riku."
"You won't, I'll make sure you won't."
"I trust you. I really do. I trust you with my life."
And that's when Riku knew he had lost. There was a but at the end of that conversation, even if it wasn't said out loud. Sora was still intent on going through with his plan. And there was nothing Riku could do to change it. His fingers itched again to reach out and just hold Sora, just for one more night, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
It was a good thing Sora was there to pick up his slack.
"Honestly... I don't... I don't want to die. I just finished school... There was so much I still wanted to see. To experience. With you. And Kairi. And everybody else." His lips tugged down into a frown, eyes squeezed shut as brought his knees to his chest, hugging them. "Can I stay with you? I'm sorry. I know... I'm being selfish. I'll control myself... I just... Want a few more hours."
Riku could never say no to Sora. Not even now.
With gentle hands reserved only for Sora, he pulled Sora up into his arms as he got up, leading him over to the bed.
It was almost like they were kids again as Sora crawled into the bed, and Riku followed. And for a moment, if Riku closed his eyes, he could pretend they were. It was so much simpler
But, of course, they weren't kids anymore. And Sora wasn't snuggling up to him like he always did, but instead, keeping a distance. Riku amended that, pulling Sora into an embrace, throwing his legs over him, and keeping him there.
"Sap," Sora said, "If I knew all it took to get you to cuddle me like this was me dying, I'd have tried it sooner."
"I would have done it if you just asked."
"Bet."
"Live and we'll see."
"Tempting," Sora murmured, staring at the ceiling as Riku buried his face into his neck.
"Seriously... Live. We can fix this."
A cold hand grabbed his, fingers intertwining with his. Seconds stretch into minutes, and Riku wonders if Sora's silence means he's asleep. Can he sleep?
"I'll... Think about it."
"Alright..." And though the body he was pressed into had lost all its warmth, it was still Sora, and now that he knew who it was, that looming presence hardly bothered him. Instead, he was lulled into sleep, more and more, as he felt a thumb rub circles into the hand it held.
When Riku woke up the next morning, he was alone, the window shut.
Anguish tore at his heart, though he tried to reason with himself, coming up with a million different excuses for Sora. But then, it was late in the evening when he heard the news.
Sora's torn clothes had been found on the beach of the play island.
Feeling as if he had been hollowed out and emptied of any emotion, Riku escaped pitying gazes and sympathies as he retreated into his room, collapsing onto his bed.
In his mind, he knew moping was pointless. But he couldn't bring himself to move. He knew he had a duty to report to the king but then he thought about how didn't care if he died or was attacked.
Sora was gone, and he wasn't going to come back, so what was the point?
It was really only thanks to Kairi that he got out a few days later. She didn't look too well herself, and then Riku felt guilty for neglecting her, for not telling her.
"We need to go to King Mickey's...And gather everyone. I have something I need to share," he finally told her. She didn't push him to tell everything, not yet, but he knew she wanted to.
Night had fallen as they walked towards King Mickey's castle, the city life still bright and vibrant as always, so full of life even if they were mourning the loss of one.
It was nauseating, and Riku had to excuse himself, stumbling away from Kairi. He pushed through the people, stumbling over his feet, the lights blinding him, his head dizzy.
And then he stopped in his tracks, leaning against a lantern pole, gripping it tightly, for out of the corner of his eye, he was sure he had just seen Sora pass. But as he turned his head, searching the crowd, he wasn't there.
But Riku was certain, filled with sudden hope that hadn't been there since he last saw Sora, that the boy was alive. He was going to find Sora, no matter what it took, and save him.
With renewed vigor, he raced towards the castle.
No matter what it took, he would save Sora.