The New Me

Chapter 12


The last day of school was a half day. Once they were let out, the gang thought it was a good idea to round up there swim suits and meet on the island. Selphie lived near Tidus, and Wakka was down the street from Kairi, but Riku was on a street all by himself. They all still lived in the same neighborhood though.

As Riku pulled his bike up to his house he saw Sora out side putting a letter into his mail box. Riku pulled up behind him, “Letter home?” He asked.

“Yea.” Sora turned around and was a little startled at how close Riku was.

“So, what’s his name?”

“Hm?”

“His name! You’re boyfriend back home. The one you miss the most.”

“Oh, well. He’s not really my boyfriend.” Sora shuffled his feet and decided to change the subject. “What are you doing here at this time of day? Don’t you have school?”

“Today was the last day we get out early.”

“Oh, so where are your pals.”

“Getting ready, we’re going to the island to swim. Want to come with?”

“Errr,” Sora looked around. “I can’t.”

“What, you can’t swim?”

“NO! I can swim. I just, uh, lack the right gear…”

“Oh, well then…go skinny dipping.” Sora blinked a few times before Riku laughed. “I’m kidding. You don’t have to go, remember? I’m not gonna force you.”

“Um, right,” he breathed a sigh of relief.

“However, if you do want to come, just go throw on some of your skimpiest clothes and meet me out here in five ok?”

“Wait, what!” But Riku had already turned around and headed for his house. ‘Geez swimming…Its not like I can’t. But I only have trunks…This would be a perfect chance to butter him up too…’

Sora headed into his house and made a bee line for his room. He started going through draws looking for something he could swim in that would still allow him to hide the fact he was a boy. ‘God, swimming! Why’d we have to move to the islands…’

Finally, he chose to wear a pair of black shorts, the red tank top he had worn a few days ago, and threw a generic white shirt on over that. The shirt was a large one, so it came down to stop just above the shorts. He combed out his hair and pulled it down with a set of barrettes before slipping on a pair of sneakers that lacked a backing and double checked his choker. He threw a towel in his book bag and some extra clothes just incase, before heading out.

He must have been longer than five minutes because he came out to find Riku sitting on his porch. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans, sneakers, and his gloves, but no shirt.

“And just how did you know I was going to come?” Sora said trying to sound annoyed as opposed to embarrassed. ‘Just, don’t look at him…’

Riku shrugged, “Call it a hunch.” He jumped off the railing he was sitting on and onto the lawn, “You got a bike?”

“No.”

“Hm, ok. You can ride on my handlebars.” And with that the two set out for the docks.

Everyone was a little surprised to see Riku pull up with Sora sitting on the handle bars of his bike. Sora was doing his best to sit like a girl would, not so much for keeping up appearances, but out of fear of all the random guys they passed on the way here.

‘This is degrading,.’ He thought as he got off the bike. The girls didn’t look to happy to see him. ‘Well, if worse comes to worse, I know I’ve got their vote off the island.’

“Come on guys, lighten up.” Riku said patting Kairi, “Besides you promised.” He whispered.

“And so did you!” she brushed his hand aside and got into her little flower boat. “Come on lets go!”

As the kids loaded up Sora looked over at Riku. “Come on, you can ride in my boat,” he said as he stepped into the black raft. Sora followed, but found there was only one seat in the little raft. “You can sit on me.” Sora nodded and carefully placed himself on Riku’s lap. About half to the little island they both realized that was a mistake.

Sora kept fidgeting trying to do his best to stay off of Riku’s bare chest and all Sora’s squirming was driving Riku mad, but in the good sort of way.

‘Just. Focus. On. Rowing. Just. Focus. On. Rowing.’ Riku began to grind his teeth trying to ignore Sora moving around on his lap.

‘Don’t lean back. Don’t look at him. Keep your arms still. STOP LEANING ON HIM!’ Sora was doing his best not to kill himself as he struggled to gain some space from Riku. Once they were on the island the two subconsciously agreed with each other, Destiny Island never seemed so far away before.

Riku sighed happily. “So, ready to go swimming?”

Sora shook his head, “What about my tour?”

Riku thumped himself in the head, “Right I did say you’d get one. Ok, I’ll take you around.”

Sora nodded, “I’ve already seen all of it, but I would like to go into that tunnel I saw the girls go in yesterday.”

“The Secret Place? I can’t let you go in there just yet.”

“Why not!”

“Well, if I let everyone in, it wouldn’t be a secret now would it?” Sora reluctantly nodded in agreement and allowed Riku to guide him around the rest of the island.

Really, the only new thing Sora learned about Destiny Island was that the little circular island attached to it by the little bridge had a name of its own.

“And this is my favorite spot, next to the Secret Place, this is Paopu Island.”

Sora snickered, “Pow-poo? Sounds like something you’d clean up after a pet…”

“No, Paopu Island. And don’t laugh! This place is unique in all the world.”

Sora looked around, “How so?”

“Well for starters, these palm trees hear are special. The bear a star shaped fruit.” Sora laughed. “I’m serious!” Riku walked around the little island before pulling something off one of the trees. “Here.”

Sora reached over and took the object form Riku. He looked at the little fruit, no bigger than his palm, it was clearly not done ripening. Though it was green and tough all over, Sora could clearly see that the fruit had five points sticking out from the center.

“Whoa!” Sora took a closer look at the little fruit. “That’s amazing!”

“Yea,” Riku walked up to Sora and watched him examine the fruit, “They say that if you share a Paopu with someone, your fates become intertwined forever. But the fruit doesn’t grow any where else in the island chain except for here.” He walked around Sora. “We even tried to take some of the seeds and plant them right on the other side of the bridge, they never grew.”

Sora turned around. “That’s…amazing.” He looked at the little fruit, “I wish we had these in Traverse Town. I would have given one to Leon…”

“So that’s his name.” Riku ran his hand through his hair; he turned to see Sora looking confused. “You never told me the name of your pseudo-boyfriend. The one keeping you from moving on.”

“Oh. Well-” but he never got to finish that sentence. At just that moment Tidus came running up, soaking wet form swimming holding his own widen sword.

“Riku! I challenge you!”

“What! Why?”

“Cuz’ it’s my turn to hang with the new girl.” Riku laughed, but Sora frowned. “We need her for blitz ball.”

“Well you can’t have her, we’re talking.”

“I know; that’s why I’m challenging you.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Fine, but you know you won’t win. Sora, sit up there on the tree, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Sora would have protest, but he didn’t know what was coming, so he complied. As Riku got his sword, Wakka walked up and stood on the bridge. The girls came too and sat across from Sora. Kairi began cheering for Riku and Selphie for Tidus.

Riku raised his sword as did Tidus; Wakka signaled the start of the battle. Sora was looking forward to seeing Riku’s fighting style, but didn’t get to see much. Five seconds after the two started, Riku knocked Tidus’s sword from his hands.

“I win.” Riku smirked as Kairi cheered. Sora just shook his head.

“That’s ok, Wakka’s up next!” Tidus ran for the bridge and Wakka stepped up with blitz ball in hand.

“Oh man...this will go even quicker.” Riku laughed.

“Don’t mock me. We’ll see how confident you are once I’m through with you, ya.”

“Whatever.”

Riku’s fight with Wakka did last longer that his fight with Tidus, but only by a second. It didn’t take long for Riku to knock the blitz ball back at Wakka and hit him square in the face; at this point he ran at him and tripped him. When Wakka rose to stand he found the wooden sword in his face.

“Well, that’s that.”

“Three cheers for Riku! The undefeated champ!!” Kairi cheered and clapped furiously.

“So, Selphie, you going to try?” Riku turned toward the girls.

“Oh no, you’re not hitting me in the face with my jump rope again.”

“Well, what do you think of my fighting now, Sora?”

Sora scoffed, “You’re only undefeated because you haven’t fought me.” He jumped off his perch. “I’ll take you on.”

Riku smirked, “With what, you’re lacking a weapon.”

“Here,” Tidus handed off his sword to Sora. Sora smiled and brandished the little wooden sword around.

“I’m ready when you are.”

“Feisty. I love it!” Riku raised his sword to Sora. “I won’t go easy on you.”

“Good!” And with that Sora charged at Riku. ‘Feisty am I! I’ll show you!’ Sora thought to himself as he began his assault.

He swung his sword at Riku, who returned with a swing of his own. Sora felt himself become unbalanced at the force of the impact, but he quickly recovered as Riku came around for an attack. Sora turned and ran around trying to avoid Riku’s attacks; he was pretty good at dodging.

“You’re up to ten seconds!” Tidus called from the sidelines.

Selphie shook her head, “I think this is the longest battle for Riku ever.”

“Battle-shmattle, Sora’s just running away…” Kairi rolled her eyes.

“It’s called strategy!” Sora called out as he ran by.

“That’s some strategy, running away.”

“It’s not running away,” Sora turned around and gave an upward swing at Riku, “It’s a counter attack!” Riku stumbled as he fell backward. Sora jumped up and stood to hold his sword at Riku’s face, and to his surprise, the other boy jumped up propelling himself forward with his feet. He just barely missed Sora who fell on his side and seemed stunned.

“Arg!” Sora rolled over on his chest, as Riku swung his sword down he knocked it away and scrambled to get up. Once again he was on the defensive, running around trying to avoid the other boy’s attacks.

“That won’t work this time!”

“That’s ok! I’ve got a new plan!” Sora ran to the edge of the little circle and faced the water; he spun around and began deflecting Riku’s attacks, carefully stepping over his own feet to circle the boy.

‘What’s with this girl? Why won’t she go down?’ Riku stopped thinking as he realized that Sora’s circling had caused the two to reverse positions. “Oh I see, plan to knock me out of the ring?”

“Something like that,” and Sora began attacking Riku trying his best to knock him off balance. It didn’t really seem to be working at first, but eventually, Riku was starting to feel the stress of not being able to move.

‘Damn! Why is this happening? I never lose; she’s too good to be real.’ Riku tried one last time to knock Sora off balance, this time he succeeded, unfortunately, he did too well. Sora staggered forward and crashed head long into Riku and the two of them toppled over the side of the little island.

There was a loud splash as they hit the water. The other four kids looked over the side to find that once again, Sora had landed on Riku, and the two lay sprawled in the shallow water.

Riku looked up at the sky just past Sora’s damp hair. ‘I know she’s lying on me…but I swear to god, I can’t feel her boobs.’

“Hey, Riku! Human biology will only allow you lie like that for another five seconds!” Riku didn’t finish his thought, instead he hastily sat up and pushed Sora off.

Sora sat up and crossed his legs in the water, “Wow you guys reek of bad jokes.” He said and pointed at Wakka.

“Yea, it’s true. But congrats to you, you beat Riku!”

“More like a tie, they both feel off,” Kairi corrected him.

“Even so, no ones ever done that before,” Selphie said seemingly a little awe struck.

“Yea! Riku’s the best fighter in all the islands!”

“Big fish, little pond,” Riku ran his hand through his hair. “Right, Sora?”

He nodded in response.

Once they were sure the two were ok, Selphie suggested they all go swimming. Sora watched from the island as Riku and the others made their way toward the beach and soon started goofing off in the waves.

‘No way, but it is kind of hot…’ When no one was paying him too much attention, he snuck to the other side of the island hoping to cool off.

Chapter 13


It only took thirteen minutes for Riku to notice Sora wasn’t in sight any more. The gang had been busy playing a game of keep away. Riku hadn’t noticed until Wakka had managed to steal the ball from him, making him the object of everyone’s playful discrimination.

“Hey! Riku!” Kairi waved at him, “The games over here, why are you staring at the island?”

“I was looking for Sora…”

Selphie shrugged, “I saw her go through the door a little while ago.”

“Forget her!” Kairi responded, “If she can’t swim, it’s her fault for coming along.”

“I invited her.” Riku began wading toward the shore, “It’s not right to ignore her.”

Kairi ran after him and took hold of his arm, “Come on, Riku. She doesn’t even want you to know that she’s gone. If she didn’t want to be ignored, she would have told us she was leaving…” Kairi began to pull him back into the water, “Just stay here with us. Besides we’re having fun without her.”

Riku looked down at Kairi and then back at the others before deciding he was going to check on Sora anyway. So he yanked his arm from Kairi and set off again.

Kairi waited until he was out of sight to angrily thrash about in the water. “SO MUCH FOR PROMISES!”

Sora had found what he thought to be the best alternative to swimming. He made his way to the little spring spouting from the rock face on the islands opposite side. At first he took a few drinks from it. After waiting a while to see if he was followed he finally opted to kneel in front of the spring and let it gush out on his head. The water was cold, and fresh, so he was able to cool off and drink at the same time.

‘I should go back in a bit, just to show my face again.’

Riku walked out onto the little rise above the spring and stared for a moment. He was happy to see Sora was alright. He was happy to see Sora. He was happy to see Sora on ‘her’ knees with her head back letting the water from the little spring splatter all over her.

He was happy.

‘I should probably go.’ He thought as he watched the white shirt cling to the ‘girl’s’ body. ‘She’s really flat, really.’ He quietly sat down on the ground above the water. ‘But the rest of her is nice.’ He leaned forward and rest his chin in his hands.

‘Maybe she really can’t swim and that’s why she came out here…’

Riku sat and watched Sora take another drink from the spring while still kneeling.

‘I really ought to go. This is kind of demented.’ He still stayed there in his spot and watched Sora some more. ‘She’s kind of got a few muscles here and there, maybe that’s why she’s so hard to fight.’

Now he watched Sora stretch and lean to rest ‘her’ head on the all.

‘Good runner. Good hitter. Athletic and a good fighter…And cute. It’s like, I’m almost dealing with a…’

He sat up and thought about that. “I wonder…” Riku stood up and jumped down into the water with a loud splash. Sora shot up and turned around.

“Riku! What are you doing here?”

“Watching you act out a wet dream.”

“Wha-what?”

“I’m just kidding.” Riku walked up to Sora, “Hey, I’ve got a question for you.”

Sora backed up a bit until he felt his back hit the wall, “Yea?”

Riku came closer, “I was wondering…” He rest his hand on the wall next to Sora’s head. Sora’s eyes for a moment flickered up at his arm, then back down.

“Wondering what?”

Riku leaned in so their foreheads were barely touching, “Why is it, you’re so good at everything that I do?”

“Um….rough city life?” Sora smirked and gave a little laugh.

“Well, maybe, but I kind of thought, that maybe…You’d tell me something different. You know, cuz’ it’s bad to keep secrets with new friends.”

“Well…I,” Sora froze. ‘I don’t want to tell him this early! DAMN IT! I shouldn’t have come today.’

“Well?” Now Riku was close enough for Sora to feel his breath on his face. He couldn’t help but blush, it was embarrassing how close Riku was. His eyes flickered around looking for away out, but no matter where he looked, his eyes came back to cool sea-green eyes, wet silver hair, and tanned island skin.

“I, um-” Sora felt the words catch in his throat, but he soon found he didn’t have to worry about answering.

Kairi wasn’t happy about Riku walking away like that. He practically tore himself away from her. She couldn’t understand, what was so wonderful about a girl who obviously couldn’t careless to hold his attention.

‘I’ve only been there since day one,’ she sulked walking up the stairs. ‘Been there for every mistake, every bump, every breakup.’ Kairi stooped at the top of the stairs. She considered going right through the door, but decided to give it one more chance. She walked over the little bridge and picked off an unripe fruit. “This will have to do,” she said lightly tossing it up and down.

She turned around and headed for the door. “Stupid Sora…I bet she’s playing hard to get, I’ll teach her to steal boy friends. Bitch.” Kairi walked through the door devising her own plan on how to break her rival’s heart and win Riku over. She had been expecting the two of them to be alone, but not alone like this.

Kairi walked out onto the little bridge to make sure she was seeing things clearly. There they were, Riku and Sora. But he had her pined against the wall, they were so close. So close, and the way she keeps moving… ‘Just what is he doing down there! Just what is he thinking…Just-’ she couldn’t help but scream.

“RIKU!”

Both the boys looked up to see Kairi standing glaring at them from the bridge. “JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!”

“What, we’re talking.”

“Talking my ass! You promised me Riku!”

“I haven’t forgotten!”

“Tell that to your hormones!” She turned around and began to walk away, “Well if our relationship means so very little to you then fine! I’ve made my decision! I HATE her!”

“Hey wait a minute! What relationship?”

Kairi spun around at the door, “This one!” and she chucked a little paopu into the water. “I never want to see Sora on our island again! And if I catch you with her I’ll tell your parents just what you’ve been doing when they’re not around. We’ll see you make-out at summer boot camp!!” And Kairi ran through the door.

Riku looked back at Sora; then ran away after Kairi.

“Woo, Thank GOD for crazy would-be girlfriends.” Sora smiled and headed back for the main beach. Although he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment at Kairi’s interruption, after all, how often was Riku going to get that close?