The Key To A Heart

The Key To A Heart
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I Don't Own these characters, or make money from them, I just like to use them in my stories.

Chapter Two

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“I’ve got something you could never imitate, too.” The brunet replied, leaning back into the sand with a smile playing on his lips.

“Don’t you go and get all corny on me.” The silver hair boy laughed, lightly punching his friend in the shoulder.

“What’s that suppose to mean?” Sora grumbled, rubbing his arm where the fist had landed, although it didn’t hurt.

“Come on, Sora. I just pulled that line on you. If you said that I could never imitate having me as a friend either, it would just be the corniest thing you ever said! And that’s saying something.” The older boy felt relaxed here, the sound of the waves, just the two of them together, no heartless or nobodies trying to destroy the worlds. It was almost like they were the only two in existence, and to Riku, that was just fine.

Sora only pouted, though he really wasn’t that upset. He was just glad that everything was now over. That Xemnas was really defeated. “Say, Riku. I’ve got a question.”

Riku looked over at the brunet, slightly anxious with what the teen was going to ask him.

“Sure, what is it?” he asked, an indifferent look on his face, hiding the panic the silver haired teen felt fall over him. He just knew that Sora was going to ask about the kiss last night, and in all honesty, Riku wasn’t sure that he was ready to answer that question just yet.

“What is your wrist sleeve thingy covering? Are you hurt?” the overly cute worried expression on Sora’s face was priceless to Riku. “Cause I think that my magic is restored enough that I can heal you again. I know that you ran out of healing items in the last battle. I don’t want you to lose your hand or anything because I forgot to heal you or something silly like that. I’d never forgive myself if I let that happen! Come on, let me see it, I want to make sure that you are okay.” The younger brunet reached over and grabbed the covered wrist, attempting to pull the covering off of Riku’s hand.

“Sora, stop please.” Riku whispered, an odd tone apparent in his voice, as he tried to pull his hand away from the persistent boy.

“But Riku…” he whined, still concerned for his friend. The silver haired boy held up his right hand to silence the boy.

“I’m not hurt. Don’t worry about it. It was something that happened while you were sleeping. I still have all use of my hand, see?” to prove his point, Riku raised his left hand and wiggled his fingers in front of Sora’s face.

“Then what happened to it?” the boy was so innocent, Riku wasn’t sure if he wanted to taint him with the information that he had in his possession. But with everything that they just went through together, Riku felt that he owed his best friend an at least an explanation.

Letting out a sigh, the silver haired boy pulled his arm up to his chest, before removing the small covering. Keeping his hand close to his chest, he looked over once more at his friend.

“You’re the first person to see this other than me. Not even the King or DiZ has seen this. I’m a bit ashamed of it, but at the same time, it’s one of the best things that I have ever had.” Riku wasn’t sure if he was talking more to himself or to Sora, but with one small glance, he knew that Sora was worried about him, which made it all worth it to share this secret with him.

Sora cocked his head to the side, a little confused at Riku’s actions. How you like something that you were ashamed of? “Riku, you know you can tell me anything, right?” Sora whispered, afraid to break the mood if he had spoken any louder.

“I know.” The silver haired teen replied, then slowly pulled his hand away from his chest. This was his biggest secret, and once he let Sora know about it, he would never be able to hide it again. But Sora was his closest friend, and if he didn’t let the brunet know now, he may never have the nerve to show anyone again.

Sora sat there, looking over as his best friend, now scared out of worry for Riku. With the way that the sliver haired teen was hesitating, it only made his concern grow. So as soon as Riku’s arm was even a little bit away from his chest, Sora shot his own hand out and grabbed the unwrapped wrist and pulled it towards his own.

“I’m not going to judge you on whatever happened, Riku, I just want to help you. And I can’t help you if you don’t let me see whatever is wrong.” Sora whispered, not looking down at the hand in his grasp, but at Riku, his cobalt eyes peering deep into his friends aquamarine depths. With that single look, Riku knew that he was doing the right thing.

“Thanks, Sora.” He whispered, not knowing how best to described his emotions of relief that he was feeling at the moment. He then allowed the brunet to turn over his wrist and the younger boy gasped at the sight that came with the movement.

There on the pale skin were markings, all of which Sora recognized. The largest was a burn right into the skin, that charred the skin in the shape of the heartless insignia. A deep red, the markings deeply embedded in the skin, Sora was afraid to ask how the marking got there. Imposed on top was an actual tattoo, one of the crown symbol that Sora had adopted as being his own over the years. It obscured the middle of the heartless insignia, and made Sora question the importance of the placement of the crown. The final markings though, were the ones that Sora was most curious about.

“You tried to kill yourself?” the brunet whispered, lightly running his gloved fingers over the trio of scars. The silver haired teen shuttered at the feeling of the ghostly touch in such a sensitive spot.

“After I accepted the darkness, and battled with Roxas, I felt so lonely, nothing could help. I wanted to be back on the island with you, with everyone. I would sit for hours, just staring at you asleep in the pod, wishing that you were awake, that you would show that you were still alive, that you were still you. Not like me. If you woke up, you wouldn’t have even recognized me. Look what happened when you saw me first with Kairi. You thought I was an enemy. It wasn’t until you looked at me through your heart, that you saw that it was really me.”

“Riku…” Sora trailed off, taking the bare hand into his own and squeezing slightly in a sign of comfort. He never knew that his best friend went through such a hard period.

“Let me finish, please.” The older boy whispered, squeezing the hand back, but not removing it from the brunet’s grip. “For those long days, sitting there in a body that wasn’t mine, knowing that you would want to kill mw on sight, I thought a lot. So much stuff was happening around me, I went into a deep depression. DiZ knew that something was up, but he just kept assigning me small missions. Then there was one day, when the monitors failed, and it looked like you were dying. I just couldn’t handle that thought. I went off into the darkness, and that’s when I did it. Over the symbol that I hated so much about myself. Ansem had that symbol tattooed everywhere. I have no idea why this one chose to stay after I regained my own form. Anyway, of all the people to find me, it was Axel”

“Axel, as in number VIII of the Organization?” Sora asked in slight disbelief.

Riku nodded. “He wasn’t as bad the rest of them. Oddly enough, I formed a slight kinship with him. You see, we were both losing someone that we cared a lot for.”

Sora paused, still looking at the markings on Riku’s wrist. The silence continued for a few minutes before the younger brunet looked up once again at his best friend, and asked the final question that was on his mind.

“But what is with my crown?” he whispered, and if the silver haired teen hadn’t been looking right at his best friend, he probably wouldn’t have heard him. This was the part that Riku was the most reluctant to answer. It was going to reveal a lot more to Sora than he wanted, but felt he indeed owned his best friend a final explanation.

“Because I always wanted to be able to remember you. With Naminé playing with our memories like that, I didn’t want to lose sight of you in my mind. So I had this done in Port Royal, soon after the complete transformation into Xehonart’s heartless. It was the only thing that I had that reminded me of who I really was.”

Sora took a deep breath and wrapped both arms around his best friend in a comforting hug. “If it makes you feel any better, I never forgot who you were. I could never forget you, Riku.” The brunet was still whispering as he tilted his head up and softly pressed his lips against those of his surprised best friend.

The silver haired teen allowed the smaller boy to kiss him for a moment before responding with gusto. The older teen increased the pressure passing between the two of them, tasting the slight taste of cinnamon that he had labelled as ‘Sora’ some time in the past. The taste was tantalizing for him, a forbidden flavour that he was never suppose to get a sample of. But with the younger boy wrapping his arms around his neck, Riku knew that his waiting for a taste of his best friend had come to an end.

Riku’s eyes slid closed, wanting to focus his senses on Sora, needing to feel him and taste him more than see him. And within moments of cutting his vision off, he was rewarded with the feeling of a small pink tongue outlining the shape of his own lips.

A deep moan erupted from somewhere far inside Riku as he parted his lips and gave the explorative tongue the access it so desperately wanted. As soon as the two organs collided in an erotic dance of passion, Riku felt something travel through him. It wasn’t darkness, or light, he knew what those felt like, but this feeling was completely new to him.

A gasp from Sora as they pulled away somewhat for a bit of oxygen was enough for Riku to confirm that his best friend had felt it too. He wasn’t allowed to dwell on these thoughts before Sora slammed himself back up against the silver haired teen and their mouths found one another immediately. Without any hesitation, Riku opened his lips to allow Sora instant access to the warm haven that he was seeking. With the deft organ invading the foreign area, Riku allowed his hand to ride up Sora’s back from where he had unconsciously wrapped them, only to find a home buried deep in the chocolate coloured spikes. The hair was smooth and silky, not hard with product like most people imagined, and the feeling that it created between Riku’s bare hands was as much of a turn on as the kiss itself.

Sora let out another light moan as Riku forced the duelling tongues back into the younger boy’s mouth, wanting to exact his dominance over his best friend. Many thoughts were running through Sora’s head as they continued their kiss. The least important of those were that he was kissing his best friend. His male best friend at that.

“Riku…” Sora breathed out as Riku pulled away once more.

“Yeah?” he chuckled, seeing the wanton look on Sora’s innocent face.

“I, um, I’m not sure.” Sora laughed, reaching his hand up and scratching the back of his head.

“Are you feeling uncomfortable now that we’ve kissed not once, but twice, and you’ve been in love with Kairi your whole life?” Riku asked, just needing to know what Sora was thinking.

“I’ve never been in love with Kairi. I thought we talked about that last night.” The brunet whispered, leaning back on his hands again, looking up at the dark sky. The grey clouds floating along, completely unaware of the inner turmoil the boy sitting beneath there. “Kairi will never be anything more than my best friend. I know that everyone expected us to end up together, but I could never see myself with her in anyway more than friends.”

The silence that had been haunting the two teens since they had been reunited once again reared it head, and once more, Riku recalled many times that they had been in the same position back on their island. The only difference was the colour of the water, as well as there were no shore birds calling.

“What about me?” The words left Riku before he could stop himself.

“What about you?” Sora replied, a little confused.

“Am I doomed to never be more than your best friend, Sora? Or after everything that you have just told me, did you want to take it to the next level?” the tone of Riku’s voice told the younger teen that the answer was going to effect their friendship for the rest of their lives.

“Do you want to be more than friends, Riku? Cause didn’t you start both the kisses?” Sora grinned, pushing Riku’s arm softly.

“I think it’s was more one and one.” Riku replied with a laugh, before returning the shove.

“Meh, who’s counting?” Sora’s grin was infectious, and in a moment, Riku had a wide grin on his face as well.

“You were, you little brat. So, where does this leave us?” Riku knew that the real smile had felt good, but he had to know where Sora sat on this issue.

Sora once again leaned back on his hands, looking up at the sky with a thoughtful look on his face. “Well, I already told you how I feel about you being back. But why is this only up to me? Don’t your feelings have anything to do with this? Cause no matter how I feel, I need to know how you feel too.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Riku scoffed. Leave it to Sora to be that clueless.

“Obvious? What do you mean?” Sora cocked his head to the side as he looked over at his silver haired friend.

Riku just shook his head as he let out a slight breath of air. “Come on. How many people do you think would throw themselves into the way of a crazed nobody wielding a pair of glowing red light swords, not to mention take on the appearance of their mortal enemy, just for a friend. You can be so blind, you know?”

Sora thought about what the silver haired boy was saying, and then looked at the wrist covering that was sitting in the sand between them. That sparked an image of what was on the other side of Riku’s wrist to come to mind. His crown. Over everything that was darkness, there was a light for Riku to follow. To remind him of the way out of darkness. It hit Sora then, that he was Riku’s light.

“How long?” Sora whispered. He felt a little embarrassed that he never noticed that Riku had felt that way about him.

“I think I noticed once the King and I locked ourselves inside Kingdom Hearts and you promised that you would come back for me even after I tried to kill you several times. But in all honesty, I couldn’t even fathom how long I’ve felt this way.”

Sora said nothing as he picked up the material and looked closely at it. A little bit of blood stained a part of it, and he was thrown back into a memory of the two of them sitting in a position exactly the same as this, before Kairi entered their lives. And they had promised each other that they would be together forever.

“Riku…” Sora trailed off, clutching the cloth tightly in his hand.

“Yeah?” the older boy answered, looking over at Sora,

“I don’t think I can go back.” The statement was spoken so quietly that Riku almost didn’t hear him.

“Go back where?” Riku looked over at his friend, only to see an odd look on Sora’s face. It looked as if he was pained, and Riku swore that he could see tears welling up in the corners of the brunet’s eyes.

Sora let out a deep sigh, then used the cover to wipe his eyes. “I can’t go back to the islands. I can’t deal with how the other people will see me. Besides, I’ve spent the majority of the last two years travelling with a giant dog and duck. I just want to lay low and live a normal life. Not what I have been doing for the last two years. I want to be a normal teenager for a little while again.”

Riku got a little smile on his face as Sora spoke. He had meant to tell Sora this a little later, after they had gotten back to the island and the depression had really set in.

“You don’t have to go back. Not for long anyway. I already talked to the king. Even though the worlds are no longer connected, he is going to clear the way for you and I to live in Radiant Garden.” Riku told the brunet, waiting to see the expression on his face at the realization of the words.

“You and I?” he spoke slowly, and slowly but surely, the meaning of the words dawned on him. “Both of us? Together?”

Riku nodded. “I have been living in darkness for too long. I can’t face anyone from before. Everything will seem so meaningless. Fighting on the beach with Tidus, Wakka and Selphie? It just wouldn’t be the same. I don’t even think that if we get back to the island, I will even go see my parents. At least if you go, you can say that you were saving dozens of words, where as I can say that I kidnapped the adopted daughter of the mayor, tried to destroy said worlds, and allowed darkness into my heart enough to change my appearance. You think that I can go back to the normalcy of everyday life of the islands?”

“Point taken.” Sora smiled, leaning his head against Riku’s shoulder. “I guess you probably want this back, don’t you.” The smaller brunet lifted the cloth covering over to his best friends, and the silver haired boy nodded, before taking the wrist cover and slipping it on.

“Thanks.” Riku smiled, placing a single kiss on Sora’s forehead. “So, have you decided what will happen between us?”

The brunet felt a blush creeping up on his face, and he knew he had been avoiding answering the question. “Um, well. I don’t know. I really think that it could work out with us.”

“So do I, Sora. So do I.” The two of them sat like that for a little while, Sora curled up against Riku’s side, just listening to the waves, content in knowing that they were sitting there together and alive.

“So we’re going to live in Radiant Garden?” Sora’s voice held the smile that was apparent on his face.

“Yup. The king just has to clear it with Leon, Merlin and Princess Aurora. I guess that she has taken over the throne, seeing as DiZ, I mean Ansem has disappeared, and her world has never re-appeared. Besides, Leon refuses to take over complete leadership of the world.” Riku squeezed Sora’s shoulder quickly, quickly growing accustomed to the feel of the smaller brunet close to him.

“You sure have kept up to date on everything, despite what all was going on.” Sora chuckled, slowly pulling away from the older teen.

“I had a moment to talk to the king when we were at the final rest. He told me all this after I asked him about getting us clearance to live in Radiant Garden. Donald and Goofy were talking to Kairi, so I had a few moments of privacy while you checked your inventory.” Riku shrugged.

“Oh my god!” Sora sat up straight in an abrupt manner, startling Riku.

“Sora? What’s wrong?” Riku’s voice failed to hide the panic that he refused to display on his outward appearance.

“Kairi. What is she going to think now that we are, you know, together? More than likely she has a vision of her and I ending up together. After seeing all the happy endings in the worlds that we were in, she is probably expecting one of her own. Besides, I promised her that no matter what I would return her lucky charm. You know what girls are like, they twist your words so that you are their boyfriend when you are only saying something like you will go get them a drink.” Sora began to ramble, causing Riku to chuckle.

“I think that she’ll understand.” Riku replied, calmly.

“What about the fact that all the other princesses of heart got their happily ever after? What about her? I feel almost rotten that I won’t be able to help her achieve hers. I mean, look when we all met up again. The first thing that she did was give me a hug. It felt so strange, and I didn’t know what to think about it. Then again when we were with Roxas and Naminé, Kairi promised them that we would be together every day. Now I feel guilty because now I think that I am breaking a promise to not only one person, but three. Even though Roxas and Naminé no longer have a physical body, I know that they are there, right underneath the surface. They’ll know. Kairi completely believes that we’re destined to live happily ever after, just like everyone else.” With his rant over, Sora fell forward, his arms resting on his legs, and he took a moment to hyperventilate, too many things going through his head at the moment.

“You have to relax Sora.” Riku whispered, rubbing Sora’s back, in hopes to calm him down a little. It really hurt him to see his best friend, now his boyfriend, in such a position. “Kairi is not quite as naïve as you think that she it. I think that deep down, as much as she wants the two of you to run off into the sunset together, she knows that it will never be a reality. Besides, you’ve known me for years, and when have I ever been good at sharing.” The last comment caused Sora to smile again,

“Thanks, Riku. I really am glad you are back. I really couldn’t have defeated Xemnas without your help. You saved my ass so many times back there. I just wanted to say thank you.” Sora spoke softly before leaning over and giving Riku a soft kiss, pulling away before the silver haired boy could turn it into anything deeper.

“You’re welcome, Sora.” Sora’s smile had effectively transferred over to Riku, and that caused the brunet’s smile to grow. They returned to the welcoming silence, each with a grin on their face, staring up at the grey skies, and content in just being in one another’s company. Because even if it was just for a few stolen moments, they were Riku and Sora, not warriors of the keyblades, not denizens of the light, not traitors to the darkness. Just Riku and Sora, friends all their lives, hoping to be something more in the future. And just sitting there listening to the waves and looking up into the bleak and bleary clouds, neither teen would change it for all the worlds.


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Thanks so much to everyone for all the support! I’ve had half of this chapter written for a long time, and I just couldn’t seem to get passed one part. But thanks to all the great support that everyone has supplied me with, I was able to work passed it. I think I like how this has turned out, I hope everyone else likes it too.

By the way, I’m so sorry for the shitty editing job, I’m really not that good at editing, and especially not for my own stories, plus the fact that my fantabulous twin is too busy at the moment. So if anyone is interested in being a beta (hint, hint) email me at crimson__passion @ hotmail.com (just take out the spaces).

No promises when the next chapter will be out, but I have an idea, and that will put the story at about two more chapters. I also have another KH story in the works right now, as well as a never ending oneshot for FFVIII. But I will try and get another chapter of this out as soon as possible. Until next time: Read, Review and Recycle!