Kingdom Darkness

Title: Kingdom Darkness
Chapter: Atonement
Rating: R [ NC17 later on. ]
Pairings: Riku – Sora
Comments: Third one. Finally. I’ve been thinking about how to continue this all day, but I couldn’t really write it down where I was. Ever have one of those days? Frustrating. One review, and I’m glad to hear that someone out there enjoyed this. So now, on to the story.


" Speech "
// Flashback //
/ Thoughts /


Squaresoft and Disney own Kingdom Hearts. I make no money from this.






The last of the Heartless disappeared.

Sora was breathing deeply, on his knee’s, with the keyblade laying beside him. Something was wrong… his heart was still beating quickly, almost frantically, and it was beginning to ache.

He gripped the spot over his chest tightly, jaw tight, as he mutely looked for some kind of help; Donald was propped against a distant wall, looking as though he’d been knocking around one to many times. Goofy was fine, so it seemed, and had gone off to find Pluto, who had ran away as soon as the darkness showed up.

Beast was limping, half dragging himself along the ground, back to where he had placed Belle, beneath one of the large, long windows that allowed pale moonlight to seep in slowly. He collapsed a few steps away from her, and kicked his feet against the ground, their longs nails scraping up the wood.

“ Beast… A-are you…. Okay?” Sora gasped out, slowly working his way to his feet, his knee’s clattering together a little bit.

“ Belle needs help.” Beast ground out, pushing himself along the ground. Suddenly, into the room hopped the little candle opera, Pierre, trying to bend his head and arms back as he went along, trying to keep them alight.

“ Master,,, we ‘erd from ze footrest, ze monster’s are back!” Pierre ranted, the aura of light around his glowing golden against the walls, and with the assistance, Sora could see Belle’s face; pale, so much so that if he hadn’t have known her, he could have thought she was nothing more than a lifesized procilien doll. Pierre gasped, his left candle flickering out.

“ Belle… what has happened to ‘er?” Pierre dared to inch a little further, but Beast snarled and spread his arm out over Belle, the cloak following and effectively blocking her from sight.

“ The Heartless.” Beast snarled, his lip curled and teeth bearing with every word, “ They stole her away from me again! I will find and kill them all!”

“ But master! You are ‘urt! You can had go and destroying not-ting until you ‘re better!” Pierre demanded, frantically trying to relight the tiny little candle. Beast snarled first, and then roared, stomping his hand down on the marble floor hard, so that it splintered beneath his weight.

“ I can go if I please!” Beast wavered a little, slipping down onto his knee’s, and breathing hard again. Pierre had a pleading look about him, and turned with a quick flourish when Sora picked up the Keyblade, which rattled against the floor.

“ I… sorry.” Sora breathed, his hand still grasped possessively over his thunderous heart. Pierre smiled a little, as best he could, in light of this new situation.

“ You zeal ze worlds, right? So, zeal ze keyhole.” Pierre said simply.

“ How… did you know?” Sora asked, incrediously. Beast flexed his great shoulder blades, raising his large head to look at Sora, his eyes spinning.

“ I told him… about how you helped me find her the first time. Would you, please, find the Keyhole?” Beast had a pleading expression. Lost and painful, Sora could not say no to it.

So he nodded, determinded, and turned carefully, to look back at Donald. He seemed to be alright now, his brow creased downwards hotly as he inspected a tiny crack in his magical staff. Probably from when he got angry, justjust batted at the heartless.

“ Donald.” Sora said, beginning towards the door, “ Come on.”

“ Shouldn’t we say bye first?” Donald asked quietly, when he caught up with Sora at the threshold out to the hallway. Sora creened to look back at Beast, who didn’t take notice to their leave, and instead paying attention to his fallen friend.

“ We should just leave him in peace.” Sora responded. As quietly as they had come, they were walking down to the parted doors, where a cool flutter was rolling in. Sora shivered at the doorway, having stopped to look out into the white landscape. When something touched his shoulder, he jumped and turn to face it rapidly.

It was a coat rack. It had leapt back as well when Sora’s hand just barely missed it. It was still for a moment, they, very carefully extended its longest arm, with a rather large tan coat hanging on it.

“ For me?” Sora asked, his cerilian eyes wide. The knobby head lurched forward in a vague form of a nod. Sora smiled brightly and took it, flinging it over his shoulders and rolling the sleeves for his hands to poke through.

“ I think my friends might need one too.” Sora asked, politely. The coated rack spun around to where a longer coat was thrown, and a smaller one beside it, that looked as though a child may have worn it at some point. Sora took these, and gave a slight bow to the coat rack.

“ Thanks a lot. I’ll bring them back, I promise!” Sora turned and raced outside, extending the coats to his two friends in the proper order that they went.

Goofy had been out there, and took the jacket with a nod of thanks. Pluto was there too; he must have gone off outside, and like before, had a stick dangling from out of his mouth, wagging his tail and looking at Goofy expectantly.

“ ooh, now… we gotta find the Keyhole now, Pluto. You can come along tho.” Goofy patted the dog on his knotched head. If Pluto was a person, he might of very well glared for not having his wishes complied, but he dropped the stick in defeat, and pranced along behind them.

The Heartless were growing more numerous. Their numbers were greater the closer they got to the keyhole. The Heartless…the ones who stole Riku. Sora almost felt vengeful.

// A storm was rolling in.

Everyone on Trinity Island was getting into their small rowboats, and beginning back to their respective islands in the distance. Sora, though, remained standing on the beach. This storm looked worse than any he had weathered before in his life. He was quite literally petrified to the spot.

“ Sora!” Kairi called. She was in her boat and rowing, though slowly. He could see the confusion in her eyes, even now, “ Hurry, of you wont make it back until tomarrow!”

“ I… Its to dark…” Sora was retreating back to the line where sand changed into grass. Kairi kept rowing. She called to him again and again, but he couldn’t move. Not in the direction of that hideous storm, anyway. Sora felt a hand touch his arm.

“ Come on, Sora.” Riku said quietly, pushing Sora toward the docks. Sora shoved his feet out in a feeble attempt to stop.

“ Where did you come from! No! We wont make it back! What if we get hit by lightning?! Please, Riku… “ Sora whined, now kicking at the ground. Riku merely grabbed him around the waist, and flung him over his shoulder like a bag of rice.

“ I was looking at something, now come on.” Riku growled. Sora felt a vivid shudder run through his veins; Riku had never used such a violent tone on him. It was always kind, the voice someone uses when talking to someone much younger than they. But Riku had snapped at him, and for some reason, he wanted to cry.

“ No, please… “ Sora cried. Tears flowing down his round cheeks. And they flowed harder when he was unceremoniously thrown into his row boat, towards the stern, his cheeks and eyes red and lips pulled back in distraught.

“ Stop crying, you baby.” Riku stepped down in the boat, and undid the rope tying it to the dock. Sora felt his blood run cold at those words. It was almost like… nearly as though Riku didn’t like him. Anymore, so it seemed.

“ Riku… what’s wrong with you?” Sora asked, shivering when a spray of ocean water swept over him. Riku looked at him, his eyes steely, and then back at the goal ahead as he rowed hard.

“ I’m tired of you always crying. Crying when you fall, crying when I beat you at something, crying at the drop of a hat. “ Riku’s teeth were gritted as he spoke. Sora choked on his tears a little and buried his head against his thin arms.”

“ Fine, Riku.” Sora murmured, his words thickly slurred as he forced them out of his tight throat. It was oddly quiet as they went back to the tiny island that he, Riku, and a few other childrenless families lived. When the boat hit the shore, it slid across the sand, and Sora let himself lunge forwards a little bit when it did.

Riku got out, and left him there, alone, whilst a light drizzle of rain begun to fall from the sky. Sora raised his head and miserable water logged eyes to watch his friend casually climb the spiraling bamboo staircase to his home, and the slam that followed seemed to echo into the distance.

Sora didn’t hear from Riku until the storm was well in progress.

Sora had taken to his usually hiding place beneath his bed, a space so small that only he could managed under. He heard the windows creak open, and wet feet connecting with the old wood flooring, followed by a lazy roll of thunder.

Retreating back into the corner, where the leg of the bed was pushed into the juncture of two walls, Sora watched with gaunt eyes as Riku bent, and raised the sheets a little, to look at him, “ Hey, you.”

“ Go away, Riku.” Sora managed, his throat dry and scratchy. Riku frowned a little, and reached as far as he could, he fingers just barely managing to pull at the strings of Sora’s large shoes. The motion was gentle.

“ I didn’t mean… what I said before. Something got into me… I’m really sorry, Sora.” Riku’s voice cracked a little. His stoic silver haired friend barely showed emotion, in public, but when together, Sora had always noticed that Riku opened up a lot more. He wasn’t trying to pass of the break.

“ Is that what you really think about me?” Sora looked at him miserably. Riku’s eyes were glossed over with tears he was unwilling to shed, tears of regret.

“ Of coarse not, Sora. Everyone is scared of something, even I am. “ Riku confessed, his outstretched arm falling limp on the floor. Sora relaxed a little bit, and edged away from that corner, gradually.

“ Like what?” Sora asked quietly, his slight hand moving out with his fingers splayed, to touch the back of Riku’s gloved hand.

“ Like losing you.” Riku’s breathe hitched slightly, his expression less severe than it normally was. His fingers moved slighty, “ As a friend, that is. Us guys need to stick together.”

“ I’m scared of losing you too.” Sora said in a tiny voice, still childish, “ As a friend.”

Riku smiled, only a little, and turned his hand up to take Sora’s, and began to pull him from under the bed. Sora could feel his shirt snag at a couple spots as he went, turning to an odd angle to allow his shoulder to slip out first, and the rest to follow smoothly.

Once he was out, Riku grabbed a fist full of Sora’s chestnut hair at the base of his head, and forced his head to lay against his shoulder, embracing him. Sora stared at the wall, his own lithe arms hanging loose for a moment, then carefully winding about Riku as well.

Sora loved it when he was this near Riku; He always smelled of the forest, like pine and earth, with a touch of sea mist that made it unique, and something that Sora found himself craving at times. So he buried his nose against Riku’s neck, mouth open to breathe.

Riku moved a little, the tendons there in his neck tightening a fraction. In the reign of Sora’s chin. And idly, strangely enough, Sora got this strange idea to explore it more intimately. Somewhere from above, Sora could hear Riku saying his name, when his lips pressed to that taut muscle.

“ Sora… “ Ri voi voice shook a little. His arms around Sora loosened before falling away, and Sora, in an attempt to bring back their soothing warmth, pressed a open mouth kiss to a spot just below Riku’s ear, where that scent was the strongest. Riku gasped and pushed at his ribs softly.

“ Sora, don’t.” Riku warned, his head turning against Sora’s. He couldn’t help but pull away, his eyes moist again.

“ I… I couldn’t help it, Riku.” Sora sat back, slipping away from Riku, and back towards the dark space underneath his bed. Riku’s hand thrust out though, and grabbed his own, pulling it to his angelic lips, placing them against Sora’s knuckle briefly, trailing further down to his fingers as he spoke.

“ Friends don’t do that, Sora.” Riku looke dup, his aqua eyes glowing. There was a tinkle of something that for a moment, made the light depths of those eyes seem mor more deeper, like the endless pit of the ocean. It was gone a moment later, and Sora found himself staring, as though waiting for it to reappear again. It didn’t. Sora’s skin tingled where ever Riku’s mouth graced it, down towards his fingertips, when Riku finally let go.

Blushing, Sora took his hand back, and forced down the lump in his throat that had been blooming. Why did those words bother him so? //

“ Goofy!” Donald yelled, throwing a red potion into the air. Goofy, who looked as though he would pass out at any moment, suddenly breathed in and straightened.

“ Thanks buddy!” Goofy exclaimed, and knocked his imposing shield into one of the Heartless, forcing it back until it surrendered and disappeared.

Sora was swiping his way through the black monsters, who crumbled upon the touch of his Keyblade. They had followed the sense of darkness underneath the castle, where long halls led to dungeons filled with long since gone skeletons. The room they were in now was dark and damp, with a single, withering rose in the middle, in a glass case.

The last Heartless made a long sweep at Sora, its large mouth open. Raising the Keyblade to defend himself, he could feel it sweep past. It rebounded for another attack, but Goofy got to it first. It disappeared after being hurdled back with the shield.

“ Got ya back, pal!” Goofy gave him a thumbs up. Sora rubbed his arm where the Heartlesd tod touched, forcing a rather weak smile. He turned to face the rose, and reached out with the Keyblade to tap it.

He stood back when the Keyhole appeared; it was gleaming red with tiny little flakes falling from it, much like the petals of the rose that was beneath it. Sora smirked a little, and looked back at his friends. They both looked proud of their achievement.

“ Another world sealed!” He raised the Keyblade, so that the beam of light came from the end, and right into the Keyhole. It was quiet for a moment, and then clicked. And the Keyhole disappeared from hence it came.

“ Its so beautiful… “ Donald said with a long instance of awe preceding it. A warm glow was spreading from the rose, whose pedals were gleaming with dewy drops of water. The entire castle around them seemed to be alive, and there wasn’t any better feeling. His friends behind him were rejoicing, and Sora merely smiled sadly, feeling his heart growing heavy.

They followed the same intricate paths that they had used to get to this point. Sora leading the way, as was natural. Goofy and Donald behind him were talking, as they emerged into the now waning morning.

“ Do ya think Belle is okay now?” Goofy asked, giving Pluto a pat on the head to rouse him from his dose; he had decided to stay outside by the door, and nap rather than get in the way. His eyes had popped open, and tongue flapping, he bouncing jauntily to his feet.

“ I hope so.” Donald responded, laying his staff against his tiny winged shoulder, and raising his bill up high, “ Maybe he’ll give us a reward. “

“ Maybe not. We did it outa a better good.” Goofy reminded him, with a knowing finger raised. Donald raised his eyebrows, or what could be considered such, looking up at his friend for a moment with his mouth open, then it snappedt. t.

“ Spoiled sport.” He grumbled. Sora was enjoying himself, listening to them going back and fourth. They did this often, but still, it never seemed to get old.

And suddenly from one of the high towers in the castle, there came a loud roar. It was much like the one before, more pained with agony. Sora turned quickly to look up, but the gleaming glass windows betrayed nothing of what happened from behind them.

“ Beast!” Donald said, beginning to head back towards the castle, Goofy after him. Sora was about to follow them, when the hairs at the back of his neck rose.

He didn’t need to look to know who it was. His mouth creased downwards harshly, as he dared to look over his shoulder, his fingers loose around the handle of the Keyblade.

Dressed in that black bodysuit, skin paler than ever before, and eyes nothing but a pale, hollow color, was Riku, as imposing as ever.





End of Third Chapter


A good place to end. I know that I’ve been updating this a lot lately, but theres no guaranteat iat it’ll keep going at this pace. I’ll try as much as humanly plausible, though. ^_^!


-L-chan.