The New Me

Chapter 26


It had been two days since Riku went to go see Sora at the hospital. He was definitely back to his old self now. Sora had been able to tell him and Naminé what happened in the cave, and while he wasn’t happy to hear it, it did prove his point.

Kairi was a lying bitch.

“But you know…Sora could be lying.” Naminé said looking up from her book.

Riku rolled his eyes at her. They were sitting on his couch. Riku was flipping through TV channels, and Naminé was reading her book, ‘Witchcraft & Sorcery: A guide for Beginners’.

“Yea, and he also strategically threw himself into Kairi’s blows to back that story up…”

“Well,” Naminé flipped through her book, “It says here that people can control others through magic and get them to do what they want. What if Sora controlled Kairi to hit him?”

“Naminé, who’s side are you on?”

She huffed, “Listen! You can use Witchcraft to alter peoples minds to control the out come of a situation!”

“And what does he gain by making Kairi crazy?”

“Well for starters, you.” She gave him a smug look, “What if you were Sora’s target from the get go, and all this Leon jazz is fake?”

Riku rolled his eyes, “Yea, you think so?”

“It could happen!” She flipped to a page in her book. “Look here! According to this people’s behavior is based of their memories of past events. These memories from like links in a chain leading up to the present. If one can rearrange the links, you can control people’s behavior and attitudes in the present.”

Riku shook his head in disbelief.

“Take me for instance. I was a witch in past life! I lived in a huge castle and used a prince’s memories of his true love against him. Convinced him I was the girl from his memories and kept him as a pet…until my doll minion killed him out of jealousy…”

“….Naminé,” Riku began, “I’m starting to understand why we don’t hang out around school.”

She rolled her eyes at him and went back to reading her book.

They were the only two home, so all the while they didn’t talk, the house was dead quiet. Riku listened to the TV flip through channels. He listened to birds chirping outside. He listened to the sound of a car pull up, and a door slam.

“Sounds like my bro’s home…” Naminé nodded in response. But the sound of his front door opening never came.

Eventually, Riku set the remote down. He leaned back in the couch to look down the hall. He didn’t see anything.

“Maybe he can’t get in?” Naminé offered as a suggestion. Riku frowned and got up. He walked over to a window through which he could see his front yard, there was no car.

He looked again. Yep, no car. There was one across the street. One down the road. One next door…

Next Door!

“Naminé!” He called out. “What day does Sora get discharged from the hospital!”

“I don’t know! Why?” She called back. But he didn’t answer. Riku threw on his shoes and headed out the door.

He looked over at Sora’s place from his porch. Nothing seemed unusual. Only one way to find out. He started over.


By the time he was at Sora’s front door, Naminé was out on his front porch. “Riku! What are you doing?” He didn’t answer, instead he just knocked on the door.

Mrs. Hikari, as he expected, opened the door. But this time she didn’t quickly dismiss him.

“H-hi….” He said while she silently watched him. “Uh….is….Sora…ok?”

“He’s alright. He’s up stairs.” She said calmly.

“Really! Can I see him?”

“Riku! What are you doing?” Naminé was now leaning over the fence.

“He really needs to rest,” Sora’s mom looked him over carefully. “You’re the boy next door right? Your last name is Endo?”

“Uh…yea. Why?”

Mrs. Hikari looked him over one last time, “Wait here she,” finally said as she shut the door and headed inside. Naminé now made her way through Sora’s front yard.

“Riku, what’s going on?”

“Sora’s home.”

“Oh! Can we see him?” Riku just shrugged. The two stood around outside and waited for Sora’s mom to return.

‘She sure is taking her sweet time…’ Riku looked over at Naminé who was now rocking back and forth on her sandals. He sighed a bit. ‘She’s awfully cheery.’ Riku opened his mouth to say something to the blonde just as the door opened again. Riku looked up at Mrs. Hikari, who politely smiled.

“You can come in, but only for a bit,” she stepped aside and let them in, “He’s up in his room.”

“Thank you,” Naminé said with a bit of a curtsey, but Riku just charged by and up the stairs earning him a bit of a glare from Sora’s mother. But he didn’t notice.

Sora sighed as he sat on his bed. He looked around his room; the room that had been his for a little over a month. There was a desk under the only window in the room, his bed next to it in a hollow built within the wall; under it there were two drawers built into the wall, across from the bed was a large shelf decorated with book and reminders of home. And next to that a closet wardrobe where he kept his clothes. And in the back, his ‘other clothes’. The walls were decorated with wood paneling, and the carpet was light blue.

Sora laid down and looked up at his ceiling, because of the design of the bed, it was within arms reach. He was dreading coming home. For lots of reasons, one was that he knew he’d have to start on his final letter home. Why his final letter? Well he wasn’t expecting anyone back in Traverse Town to speak to him again once he told them what happened.

He had decided in the hospital he would come clean, rather than risk Leon hearing it second hand. He whimpered a little and rolled over at the thought of never hearing from the older boy again.

‘I really fucked this up….What was I thinking?’ He buried his face in his pillow and tried to sort out his thoughts. There was a light knock on his door, and the next thing he knew, he could hear his mother talking.

“Sora…dear?” She walked into the room and knelt next to his bed. “Are you ok? Is your head still bothering you?”

All he did was shake his head. He didn’t bother to look up at her, so his hair and face made a little rustling sound against the pillow. His mom reached up and stroked his head.

“You feel up to having visitors?”

“Visitors?” his muffled voice asked.

“The boy from next door is here, again.” She sounded a little disappointed.

“You mean Riku?” Sora slightly turned his head. “He’s here?”

His mom just nodded. Sora looked back over toward the wall. ‘Riku came to see me again?’

For a little while they sat like that, Sora looking at the wall, and his mom stroking his hair. Finally, he turned over and smiled at her.

“Sure, Riku can come up.”

Once he reached the top of the stairs, Riku paused, he realized he had no idea which room was Sora’s. He looked down the hallway and tried to remember from which direction Sora had come from the day the fell down the stairs. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of it.

“It’s to the right.” Riku jumped a little and moved forward as Naminé spoke up from behind. He turned around to face her as she reached the top of the stairs. “If you hadn’t gone flying by Mrs. Hikari, you’d have known that.”

Riku just shrugged and followed the girl to Sora’s room.

Once outside the door, Riku felt those nerves of his kick in. Naminé knocked on the door, and opened up enthusiastically as Sora’s voice answered with a faint ‘Come in.’ She jumped inside and promptly ran up to the boy sitting on his bed.

Riku on the other hand, found himself stuck in the doorway. Why? Well…he wasn’t quite sure. He had gotten all the way over to the house, and all the way up the stairs…now why couldn’t he get in the room?

“Sora!” Naminé squealed as she hugged the brunette, “You’re home! This is fantastic!”

“Yea,” Sora hugged her back.

“So how’s your head? Is it all better now?”

“For the most part. I still have to take this insanely strong Tylenol for the pain….” He looked around the blonde, “Um…isn’t Riku here too?”

“Yea, he’s right-” Naminé stopped her words as she realized Riku was still standing in the doorway of Sora’s room. She rolled her eyes and walked over to him. “This again! Boy…I’m not gonna keep doing this for you!” She grabbed him by the hand and dragged him to Sora’s side. Riku was sputtering an insult as she shoved him down to sit on Sora’s bed. Unfortunately, she did it a little too hard and a little to fast. Riku knocked his head on the top of the hollow and he ended up falling over clutching his head.

Sora got up and Naminé made an, ‘Oops’ face. Riku clutched the back of his head and rolled around on Sora’s bed.

“Arg! Naminé!!!” He whined.

“Well! It wouldn’t happen if you’d just suck up and stop being such a coward.”

“I’m not a coward!”

“Yea, sure…”

Sora just laughed and knelt down to pat Riku’s head. “Poor baby.” He teased the older teen.

“Yea, sure, laugh it up, Blockhead.”

“Now let’s not start that again.” Sora scowled. Naminé smiled at the boys. She started looking around the room to a lot them as much privacy as possible.

Riku sat up and looked down at Sora, who was still kneeling on the floor. Sora looked up at him, and for a while, they didn’t say anything. Riku smirked at him, and Sora started chewing his bottom lip again. To which Riku laughed a bit and leaned down to look at Sora more closely.

‘What am I gonna do about this?’ Riku thought as he pressed his forehead against Sora’s. ‘What am I gonna do about this boy? How in the world could this work?’

Sora frowned a bit as Riku’s head pressed up against his own. ‘What is he doing here anyway? I know he said he doesn’t hate me, but just what does he think he’s doing here with me?’

The two stayed like that. Not necessarily staring each other down. And not necessarily looking at each other either. Just thinking…So, what now?

However, they never got to ask each other that question, as a squeal from Naminé caused the two to look up and over at her.

Naminé had started going through some of Sora’s things, and had by luck, found his ‘other clothes’. She was now holding up his infamous Christmas dress to her body and looking at herself in the mirror built on the inside of the wardrobe’s door.

“Sora! This outfit is just darling!” She pulled the end of the dress out and turned to look at it from a new angle. “Can I borrow it?”

“No!” Sora jumped up from his spot on the floor and took the dress from Naminé. “You can’t borrow that one!” Sora clutched the dress jealously. He wasn’t upset with Naminé for going through his things; he was just really protective of his fondest memory. Especially now since he’d never get another memory of his Traverse Town crush.

“Whoa, you don’t have to get so uppity about it. I was just asking…”

“Well….Ask to borrow something else!” Riku frowned and stood behind Sora, he looked at the dress in the boys arms. From the way he was clinging to it, he figured there was only one explanation.

“Leon, again?” Riku asked, a little bit of exhaustion in his voice.

Sora turned around, and nodded with a bit of a blush. “Yea….I was wearing this the first time we kissed.” He lowered his head a bit and muttered, ‘also the last…’

For a moment there was an awkward silence in the room, finally, Riku spoke up.

“So, you’re probably really, um, attached to your stuff about Leon? You wore the dress he gave you the day you arrived, and you refuse to share the dress he kissed you in? I guess he’s just the most amazing thing ever, right?”

Sora looked up and Riku shrugged. He looked over at the shelf and pointed. “All this stuff about Leon too?”

“No…it’s all my friends.” Riku rolled his eyes.

“Yea, I bet.”

Naminé opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly cut off. “What do you mean you bet? I keep more than just memories of Leon around you know!”

“Well it hardly seems like it. Everything you do is Leon-this. And Leon-that! I don’t know why we even bother to come over here, its like talking to a brick wall.”

“Hey, Riku, quit it.” Naminé sheepishly said, she could already feel a bad situation coming.

“Well its better than having everything I do be centered on a person I don’t even know! At least Leon and I knew each other for years.”

“Yea! Years of hard work you threw down the drain over your idiot obsession!”

“My idiot obsession! You’re the one who wouldn’t leave me alone! It was you stupid friend that tried to hurt me because you wouldn’t leave me alone!”

“Well it was your stupid mouth that got you hit in the head in the first place!”

“Guys! Guys!” Naminé moved herself to stand between the boys. She was facing Riku and glaring at him. “Riku, leave Sora alone! It’s not his fault what’s happening.”

“Oh yea, sure, you side with Sora, you were in on it from the get go.”

“Riku, shut up! You don’t know anything about me! About us! You can’t come over here and pretend to be my friend just so you can bitch me out!” Sora snapped at the silver haired teen from behind Naminé, to which he turned his back on the both of them.

“You’re full of bullshit! You said we needed to talk it out, and now you don’t want to! You say I don’t know you, well do you know me? Do know what I’m known for around this dump? My friends! My friends and my god-damn girlfriends!” Riku tuned around now to face them again, he was getting red in the face with anger. “All of which I’ve parted with, and turned on! Why! Because I tried to get to know you! You-you-SON OF A BITCH!”

“RIKU! Why are you flying off the handle like this!” Naminé reached forward to grab him”

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have tried! Maybe you should have left me alone! I told you up front I didn’t want to know anything about you!”

“Well, now you’re kind of fucked aren’t you! Your little obsession sure as hell ain’t gonna talk to you now! You said so yourself! You fucked us both over!”

“Riku shut up!” Naminé smacked him. But Sora was quiet.

“Well its true damn it…All my friends are siding with that bitch Kairi, my family doesn’t even want me over here…” he lowered his head a quieted down a bit. “My best friend, the person I was always supposed to have by my side forever, is now the most sickening person in the world to me…What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do about Kairi, about my friends, about the way I feel about Sora…”

“…Riku?”

“I mean. I’ve had a girlfriend for as long as I’ve been dating. I’ve always…gone through these girls. I don’t know why I can’t keep one. I just can’t. I start out really wanting to love them…and by the end, I want nothing more than to get away from them.” He looked up at Sora. He still looked a little angry, but now a little sad, “So yea, I have a stupid obsession with you. But that stupid obsession makes me feel better than any of my ex’s ever did. I’ve never been so into a person for so long…So forgive me, if I feel like tearing into your damn boyfriend every now and again. And forgive me if I point out that you’re a damn idiot every once and a while…but I’m really not sure, what to do…”

“….” Sora looked down at the dress in his hands.

“So….I’m gonna bail now.” Riku walked passed Naminé and Sora.

Sora took a deep breath, and turned around. “Wait…Riku.” He turned around and looked at Sora. “Look…I know, I can be a pain in the ass sometimes about my feelings for Leon…but…I, I don’t know what to do either. I don’t know…”

“I think what Sora means is,” Naminé stepped around the brunette, “Is that, it’s hard to let go of your first love. It’s a feeling you’ll keep with you forever. No matter what happens. And while, he’s sorry it upsets you, you kinda also helped yourself into this situation.”

Riku looked at Naminé and thought about what se said, “Yea, but….Sora…”

“I know. I lied”

“Even if he lied, Riku, you gonna tell me you didn’t know he was a boy?”

“….well…I…”

“You can’t be pissy at Sora just cuz’ you suddenly found out your gay.”

“….I’M NOT GAY!”

“You’re not….then why do like Sora so much?”

“I…uh….” Riku looked at the two of them with a bit of confusion. Finally Sora spoke up, a bit of a smile on his face.

“You didn’t know you were gay? Is that why you’re angry?”

“There’s nothing wrong with that Riku. So you like boys! So what?”

“So what! Look at all the trouble it’s caused!”

“Pfftt…” Naminé waved her hand around. “So there’s a few problems. We’ll work them out. Right?”

“Right…” Sora looked down at the dress in his hands. “I guess we kind of have to.” He sighed and loosened his hold on the dress. “I’m really sorry Riku, I don’t mean to be so hung up on Leon…”

The silver haired boy gave a weak smile, “Its ok…I don’t mean to be such a jerk.”

Naminé smiled, “So! We’ve made up! Determined that Sora’s gonna get over Leon, and that Riku’s gay!”

“Can we still leave that one open…?” The silver haired teen protested.

“No.” Naminé shook her head. “So, are we all made up now?”

Sora looked at Riku and shrugged. “I still think we need to work on it…”

“Yea, if we can still fight, I don’t think we’ve quite got this down.” He smirked at the two of them, but winked at Sora, eliciting a groan from the other boy.

Naminé smiled. “Well then, work on it we shall!” She pat Sora on the back. “And once you and Riku are settled…You’ve gotta let me borrow some of your clothes.” Sora just laughed at her.


Out side of Riku’s house Naminé was still talking about Riku and Sora making up.

“You two are hopeless. I mean wow, I’m surprised Sora’s mom didn’t come check out all the shouting we did.”

“Yea, but you know she heard us; she gave us such a dirty look on our way out.”

“Yea…” Naminé shook her head. “But anyway, you and Sora have got to learn to chill.”

“Yea…I guess your right.” He sighed. “Maybe we’ll calm down once this whole thing is settled.”

“And maybe you’ll except that you’re gay?”

Riku took in a deep breath. “Gay is such a strong word…how about, curious.”

Naminé shook her head. “You’re gay. Accept it.” But Riku rolled his eyes.

“I don’t even know the first thing about being gay…”

“Well! You’re in luck!” Naminé dug around in her purse. As Riku watched her, he heard someone call his name from the porch. He turned around to see his brother, glaring at him.

“Great…I’m busted…”

“Ah-ha!” He looked back at Naminé. She handed him a manga.

“What’s this?”

“You’re basic guide to romance with the same sex.” Riku opened the book and spazzed.

“Naminé you read this stuff!”

“Hey, yaoi is a basic Shojo genre! You’re lucky! That book will teach you how to woo a boy’s heart.”

“You’re crazy…” He muttered.

“RIKU! HOW LONG YOU GONNA IGNORE ME!” The teen turned around to wave at his brother.

“Look, I can’t stay out. But errr…thanks for the help.” He raised the book at her, before tucking it away in his pocket.

“Don’t mention it. I’ll see you later. Bye!”

Riku shook his head at the blonde as she ran off. He then turned to his house and ran up to his still scowling brother.