Price of the Reckless

The sun was hot and dry as it beat down on him, much like one of the blankets his mother used to warm by the fireplace in winter before tucking him into them. Although this was infinitely different; the warm rays burned his skin pleasantly where it showed, not covered by his tee and shorts, and the breeze from the nearby sea cooled it. It was more than bearable; it was the most perfect definition of heaven that he knew. He could feel his whole being blooming, stretching until it filled the whole area that he noticed, from the old, cold volcano on the island, over rocks and palm trees and the warm sand that shifted pleasantly below him, cradling him so perfectly…and out over the great, turquoise sea. The sounds of waves hitting the shore filled his ears, the vague cries of seagulls that fell and rose over the beach just a mere mile away from here on the mainland.

He opened one eye, spotting a little of the azure blue sky from the small space between his nose and his arm that he had thrown over his eyes. The fine, bleached hairs that ran down his forearm shone like small, golden triumphal archs against the sunshine, and for a moment, everything was warm and familiar; he had lain here many, many times before, knew the little island like the back of his hand...knew that if he laid here long enough, Riku’s angular face would appear above him, too pale for having spent all summer out here already, with his beautiful, expressive turquoise eyes sparkling playfully, his rosy lips stretching into a grin and inquiring why he lazed around here when the world was so huge, so ripe to be explored…

The heat that travelled through him when he was plummeting back into the here and now was very different than the comforting caress of sun and familiarity. It burned like dry ice, unfamiliar and shocking, and it rocked his very being to the core; there was Riku’s face below him, but not like he would have remembered him. Eyes wide and shocked, face even paler than it should have been, Sora could feel fingers digging into his bare hips, the sudden surprise driving all the warmth a rush had brought to them out. All that was left was the vise-like grip and Sora’s name on startled lips. There was something lodged in his behind, Sora could feel it when he shifted, straddled over his best friend, feeling skin against his inner thighs. Something wasn’t right here, it was as if he had fallen asleep somewhere safe and protected and had woken up somewhere completely unexpected. It was also the first time in months that Riku looked at him as if he really saw him, eyes travelling over his face, down his neck and chest, then flicking up quickly again. They were both too shocked to feel ashamed or weirded out right now and Riku’s hands rose, gently brushing his trembling fingers over the brunet’s lightly tanned skin, over his sides where the younger could feel their ticklish caress, coming around to stroke over his shoulders. Quickly and silently they opened the clasp of the collar that laid around the slender neck, and before it had hit the floor, larger hands had grabbed the rounded shoulders and yanked Sora off of the paler body.

“No!” All the rage that had been subdued, everything that he had had to endure during months of loneliness and silence came to the surface; he could see, he could hear and smell and feel what he had missed the most and now it was taken from him again…he would not have it. In a heartbeat, Riku was off the bed and held the Soul Eater to the throat of the man that, one, had his best friend still in a death grip around one of his biceps’ and two, had held him suspended in darkness and oblivion for longer than he could remember. “Let go of him.” It was the warning growl of a man that would slit the tanned man’s throat without a second thought if he didn’t obey, not the voice of the frightened teenager that he should have been. Riku knew he was supposed to be afraid. Afraid that this man…Ansem, if he remembered correctly…would toss him into that other state of mind again. Afraid that his family and everyone he held dear were gone when the Heartless had attacked so long ago. Afraid that Sora would be hurt. None of these fears reached the surface. He was aware of them, but they didn’t quite register in his mind, didn’t waver his eyes, didn’t shake his arm. The black blade rested calm and dangerous against the threatened adam’s apple.

“Let go.” Riku could hear the Heartless coming, their garbled whispers and hisses, their feet dragging over the dusty floor. They came down the hallway to defend and protect their cruel master, and he had to get the two of them out of here before they arrived; Sora stared up at him with his wide, skyblue eyes as if he was nonplussed at the way his childhood friend stood there, naked in a warrior’s stance with a sword he had not drawn at the throat of…who, exactly? As the hand around his arm loosened slowly, he canted his head up, heat flaring in his stomach at the face that didn’t even glance down on him now. He lifted a hand to touch his throat, it felt vulnerable without the heavy collar. He was angry at the man. The young brunet rose when the hand slipped away and sidled up to Riku; who, very uncharacteristically for him, stepped forth as fast as the stroke of a hummingbird’s wing and slammed the pointed handle of Soul Eater against the man’s temple. It probably surprised Ansem that the boy was that quick after months of neglecting his training, because he fell to the ground like a sack of wet sand.

“Okay…think…out of here…”, Riku mumbled to himself, pacing two steps forth, two steps back, all the while the Heartless came closer at least in sound until Sora sighed and captured his wrist.

“Maybe clothing first? I know the way out. Come on.” The brunet skipped over to the inlaid closet, opening it and trying to find the most dignified pair of clothes he could for him, throwing Riku a pair of pants from Ansem’s side as well as a shirt. “Jackets too? Where are we going?” He worried his lower lip until cool hands came to rest on his shoulders gently. “We’ll see, Sora…dress.” The quiet, firm words grounded him and he nodded, quickly throwing on the first thing that covered his ass and abdomen at the same time.

He had spent months without his keyblade, but the moment they stormed into the hall and found themselves surrounded by Heartless of all shapes and sizes, it sprang into his hand as eagerly as if it had missed him as much as he had missed it. Sora found he was rusty in his movements, but Riku was there to have his back each time he faltered. He led the taller male down the hall, crossing another, as they slashed and stabbed and cut their way through throngs of Heartless; in the end, he didn’t even know how they got out into the courtyard, and from there, to the vast expanse of…nothing that greeted them at the gate. “Damn it…”, Sora huffed, his chest heaving with exhaustion. The muscles in his arms and back burned, his lungs hurt from panting, and all Riku had for him was a breathless chuckle. “Such foul words from your mouth, Sora…it doesn’t seem like you.” He gave the pouting brunet a shadow of his old grin, pretty exhausted himself. “Well, it seemed we have only one way to go…” Grabbing Sora’s arm, his grin widened, as did the azure eyes of the shorter. “…and that way is down.” A firm yank, and they plummeted into thick, white fog and the nothing that shrouded Hollow Bastion from the rest of the world.

***

Riku woke to a gently swaying ground. The scent of salty water and the wet wood drenched in it burned in his nose and he scrunched it up, reaching up to rub it in order not to sneeze. Opening his eyes groggily, he saw his own bangs, which he brushed out of his eyes, and then a vast expanse of velvet-blue night sky dotted with stars. The beautiful scenery was broken by half a mast swaying in the gentle breeze as the ship below them rocked back and forth with the waves, never moving since the anchor was down. At least Riku hoped it was down and holding them right there…it was an unknown fear, being caught out on the sea that he loved so much in a ship that would not take them anywhere; the mast broken in half, the sail still hanging to the lower part of it, the rest….beneath him, the firm, slightly oily fabric shifting when he moved. Something heavy was laying over his legs and as he sat up, he saw Sora there, wearing a tiny black jumpsuit that just barely reached his thighs and left his arms free as well. It was the only thing that Sora had pulled on before they headed off fighting Heartless, he remembered the stench, the heat, the familiar feeling of the fight. The brunet would be cold.

Shifting again, he leaned down to tug the younger boy up and into his arms, curling him tight to his chest and was pleased when he noticed the soft, steady breath against the side of his neck. Sora was alive. He was alive. There were no Heartless here. They were free.

In fact, there was no one here…he could safely assume that they had broken the mast when they fell and landed in the sail, a good thing they had, even with the softened fall, he could feel the bruises forming along his ass and back and found his hand brushing over Sora’s damp hair. He had fucked him…he really had. There had been pleasure enveloping his mind before he could see, smell, feel Sora above him, and when he had, it had been better than appreciated…even though they had been watched my a thirty-something pervert that had enslaved them both. Riku closed his eyes when he felt a stirring in his groin at the thought of that perfect face above his, so wanton, eyes closed, mouth open, cheeks flushed. The gorgeous tightness and heat around his cock. The sounds Sora made. He pinched himself to snap out of it and looked around instead to find out just where the hell they had landed with their jump into nothing.

The silverhaired boy didn’t know how long they had fallen, if it was mere seconds or if fate had taken longer to decide where they should land. The ship’s deck was empty, wet with the spray of the sea washing over the railing with each larger wave, rocking it gently back and forth like a cradle. It looked eerie, the wood so dark it seemed almost black, the jagged edges of the broken mast piercing the sky. If the mast had been broken before and they had fallen into that…fuck. For the first time in many weeks, Riku felt lucky. Beyond the railing laid a few yards of water, then a shore. For a moment, his heart soared, thinking he was back home…but no. No cold volcano, no docks, no nutshell boats tied and rocking in the waves. This wasn’t Destiny Island.

This was Neverland.

While it was better than nothing, and certainly better than broken bones and sure death, Riku couldn’t help but sigh, cold settling in the pit of his stomach. He had been cold the last weeks. Very cold. But there was the brunet boy leaning against his chest, sitting astride his lap, and Sora had always been very warm. The bodywarmth of the gentle weight against him helped to at least intimidate the coil of coldness. Riku looked down at the sleeping face, so angelic, and felt a surge of protectiveness. He’d been an idiot for leaving to give in to the darkness. For being jealous and hateful of Sora, who had always been the brightest, purest being he knew. It angered him that Ansem had defiled his body. Made him defile it…

Now Riku was merely a teen, and even the thought of anything sexual stirred him up. He groaned, pathetically and buried his face in Sora’s matted hair, who stirred.

“Ouch…where…?” To Sora’s credit, the brunet was on his feet faster than an average teen. There was golden light gently circling around his hand as he looked around, months of fighting Heartless making him wary of anything new, his keyblade had to be quick at hand…but the area was empty save for the taller boy sprawled out beneath him, groaning at being kicked with Sora’s hasty jump. “Oh…I’m sorry.” Riku waved it off, then rose as well.

“Did you know we would end up here?”, Sora asked. “No one here….this ship is supposed to be stacked with pirates.” A frown marred his smooth forehead.

“How about we see if we find anything dry? I can make a fire.”, Riku offered, lightly grasping hold of the hand that was still itching for the firm handle of his keyblade. Something was off here. Though Sora nodded and they made their way off the ship in one of the byboats towards the shore. It felt familiar for both of them to sail towards a white beach tinted in moonlight, and it filled Sora’s heart with such sweetly-painful nostalgia that his breath hitched. No sounds around them, no birds…no rustling of small animals…it was as if the island was completely deserted. “There’s supposed to be people here. Indians. The Lost Boys. I think in one lagoon there’s supposed to be mermaids…” Sora sounded desperate, his voice small and tight as he gathered dry wood for a fire, following Riku’s example until they had a sizable heap that Riku stacked in a small hollow he made in the sand with stones and lit with an impressive Firaga.

“We’ll find someone as soon as its light, Sora. I’m sure.”

“But what if they all…left?”

Riku shook his head, the fire crackling and catching onto the sticks, he sidled up next to Sora and pulled him into the sand to sit down close to the flames. “Where would they go? Unless someone came and picked them all up. But this is their world…they are somewhere.” He curled an arm around Sora’s shoulders and tugged him close to his side. “Don’t worry, we’ll find them.”

“I’m cold.”

“When did you become a whiner?”, Riku grinned at him playfully, though he cursed himself for not checking the ship for blankets. The breeze was chilly because it came from the sea, which was endless because it didn’t lead anywhere. Riku turned his head to press his nose against Sora’s temple as the brunet huffed and pouted.

“I’m not whining.” Yet he did snuggle closer to the other boy. Eventually, as Sora had dropped to sleep, Riku moved them so the shorter was close to the warm stones that ringed the fire, and spooned behind him tightly. Sora sighed.

“Riku, I…about before…” He felt Riku shake his head against the back of his own.

“Not tonight, Sora. We have more than enough time for that later. Sleep.”


***


“You will find them and bring them back, and don’t dare laying a hand on them.”, Ansem snarled as he paced his sitting room while one of the many Heartless tried holding a pack of ice against his temple. A hard task for the little creature, since the tall man was, one, much taller than the little black thing and two, didn’t give a flying fuck if it was comfortable. Before the ruler of Hollow Bastion, and quite effectively all worlds now, a blond man kneeled on the carpet on one knee, head bowed. “Yes, Master.”

“And you will do it quick! Don’t let that blasted rebellion get wind of them having escaped, they’ll be on their tracks quicker than you can blink.”

“Yes, Master.” At a nod of the whitehaired head, the blond rose.

“And General?”

The blond turned, bright eyes resting calmly, if a little coldly on Ansem. The hand that was hidden beneath the one long sleeve his outfit sported curled into a fist, the slight creak of leather lost on the tanned man.

“Do it fast.”


***

Whew, I’m back for my yearly update….*chuckle* Tell me what you think, peeps. Please do. No smut in this one, but it’ll be back VERY soon.