Beautiful Mondays

“Ah! Wait, guys!!” the brunette called to his animal friends.

“Hurry up, Sora!” the duck yelled over his shoulder, his voice sounding as nasally as it always did, “King Mickey said to meet him at the train station and we’re late!”

“The king waits fer no one you know, yup!” Goofy added, agreeing with himself.

“But when did you see him?” Sora tried, breathing hard. Why couldn’t his companions be this athletic in battles? He’d never seen them move so fast in all the years he’d known them. “I never saw him!”

“You were fighting one of them big guys, you know, one of them with the--”

“Don’t ask questions,” Donald quacked, interrupting his taller friend, “Just run!”

“But I can’t—you’ve got to slow down!!” Sora argued, as his friends vanished around a corner that was a good 400 feet ahead of him. “GUYS!!” he complained, trying his best to pick up speed. He turned the corner and began running down the dark alleyway that he assumed his friends had just blazed through. He couldn’t even see them ahead of him anymore they were so far ahead. He couldn’t hear them anymore either. Sora knew that he was in trouble if he didn’t catch up soon, but the truth of the matter was…he just couldn’t run anymore.

Because of the fatigue, one of his shoes dragged slightly and got hooked inside a folded cardboard box that had been littered on the ground. Before he knew what was happening, he was falling. Before he hit the ground though, his torso bent around some sort of rod, knocking the rest of the wind out of his body. His fingertips had just barely touched the tar when he’d fallen on it. Whatever it was, it hadn’t been there a moment ago…he would have seen it when he was running.

The brunette gathered his feet underneath his body so that he could straighten himself—it was very uncomfortable to be bent over a bar. When he did so, he became aware of something behind him as well—or rather someone behind him. Sora gathered that the person behind him had somehow snuck up on him and had shoved the pole underneath him to break his fall, but he had no idea how or why someone would do that. Calling upon his reflexes, Sora tried to jump away from the figure but the bar kept him from getting too far. In fact, it tightened against his body and pulled him back into whoever was behind him.

“What…do you want…?” he managed breathlessly. “Who…are you…anyway? I have…to go…and…” His words went ignored as he was suddenly turned roughly to one of the alley walls. Immediately, Sora brought his hands against the cold hard brick so that the impact wouldn’t hurt as much. He was a bit slow though, and the rough texture scraped the back of his hand resulting in red beads of blood forming for a few seconds before his body healed itself.

“Good idea. Hands on the wall, Sora,” came a whisper in his ear. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled up at the sound. It was too quiet for him to figure out who it was, but by the way he was being man-handled, he guessed that it at least wasn’t one of his allies…Unless someone was trying to be stupid and play a joke on him. Hoping he was inconspicuous in his actions, Sora very slowly tried to turn his head to the right to catch a glimpse of the person behind him. The pressure disappeared at his waist for a moment but he felt something sliding into his hair and take hold. “I said hands,” the person repeated, pulling Sora’s head straight and down again. Reluctantly, Sora obeyed.

“Who are you?” he demanded, now beginning to regain some more of his breath.

“You know… You’re really cute when you’re not being a stubborn ass…” the voice commented lightly, ignoring the brunette’s questions again. ‘I know I know who you are…’ Sora thought, frustrated.

“That’s enough!” he said abruptly, already sick of the games. On the wall, beneath his hands, a keyblade began to take shape, the long round shaft being the perfect length for the distance between Sora’s outstretched hands.

“Don’t,” the person said, bringing his own keyblade underneath Sora’s chin. “I don’t want to hurt you, but you’re really asking for it.”

“Riku!?” Sora exclaimed when he saw what the ‘bar’ really was. It was just the back of the keyblade. The figure behind him made a soft clicking noise with his tongue but then released a thoughtful ‘Hmn….’  “It is you! What are you doing? Donald and Goofy and I are supposed to go and see the king at the train station! I’m really glad that you came back--man, you had me worried there for a minute, hahaha-ow! Riku!” While he had been talking, he’d let his arms down and was about to turn away from the wall when Riku had pushed him roughly back into it. “What are you doing? Joke’s over now…”

“Who ever said I was joking around?” was the simple reply.

“…What…? What are you doing then—?”

“Put this on.” Sora saw something black suddenly appear in his peripheral view. It looked kind of like a tie, but upon closer examination, he realized that it was the blindfold that Riku had worn when he looked like Ansem.

“Why…?” he asked slowly, not taking it from the other.

“Because if you don’t, I will.”

“But, aren’t you back to normal? Why don’t you want me to see you?”

Riku laughed wholeheartedly. “Oh, Sora. Who ever said this has to do with how I look? Who says that this can’t be about you?”

“…me? What about me?”

“It seems like you’ve caught your breath…” Riku commented softly. The cold metal of the keyblade slid against Sora’s throat as Riku adjusted it to sit in his arms. Then, he brought his arms back to tie the blindfold on the smaller boy. Sora’s hands immediately flew to his throat where his windpipe was being blocked. He tried to pull the keyblade down, but it ceased to budge even when he put all of his weight back on Riku. Riku seemed not to notice his efforts, and just kept his elbows bent as he slowly tied the black fabric into a knot behind Sora’s head. Sora’s chest was burning from the lack of air. Perhaps with some sort of warning, he’d be able to hold his breath longer, but with the fact that he’d just been running to catch up with Donald and Goofy, had the wind knocked out of him by Riku, and was now being choked by Riku’s keyblade, it came as no surprise to him that he began to feel very sluggish. Had he been able to see, he would have seen the alleyway begin to fade. Riku felt his friend’s body begin to go limp against him, and caught him in his arms when he passed out completely. A few seamless moments later, his feet left the ground as he was pulled up into Riku’s solid hold. The keyblade dissolved into the air: its master needed both arms to carry the brunette to the next destination. It wouldn’t take long before Sora opened his eyes, so he had to hurry.

 

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