Crossing Swords

by ZantetsuXemnas

Summary:

At Sanctuary Peak High, two boys meet and are brought together by their passion for the arts and the blade, but their true feelings remain hidden from each other.

Chapter 1: The Promised Beginning

The sun rose on the town of Sanctuary Peak, and the people with it, slowly and steadily bringing the town to life. The silent streets began to whirr with the sounds of passing vehicles as people headed off to work, or school, or a place to get a good breakfast. Passersby exchanged greetings with one another, some with an enthusiastic manner and others with a simple wave of acknowledgement. There was no telling whether or not one was thrilled at the beginning of a new day, and especially for the start of a new school year. It was the first day of school at Sanctuary Peak High, and the halls were bustling with students excited to see their friends again. Nobody was more excited than Sora, though– he had run to his locker so fast that his crown necklace had bounced up and gotten lodged in his brown spikes of hair. 

“Ayyy, Sora! So, sophomore year… got any plans?” said Hayner, poking his head out around the door of Sora’s locker.

“You bet! I’ve already signed up for the fencing team and theater!” Sora announced proudly.

“Real and stage combat, huh? I’m in fencing too– I guarantee you’ll see me in the Struggle arena sooner or later, so look out for that!” Hayner flashed Sora a cocky wink.

Sora laughed. “Have you seen Pence and Olette?”

“They’ve already headed off to their classes. I don’t have class with ‘em yet,” Hayner sighed. “What about you? Have you checked your schedule yet?”

Sora took a folded-up piece of paper out of his pocket and scanned it. “I have Math first period…”

“I got History. I’ll probably see you around later, though!”

“Yeah! See ya!” Cramming his stuff into his backpack, Sora ran off down the hall.

Soon enough, he arrived at his Math class and sat by the side of the room. There were already a number of people there, but the teacher hadn’t arrived yet, so most people were just chatting with each other. Sora looked around the room to see if anyone he knew was there– unfortunately to no avail.

That was when his eyes landed on the boy next to him. He looked to be just a year older than Sora, tall and slim, his lean musculature bared by his tight black sleeveless top and yellow vest. 

Wow. He’s– he’s hot. The thought slipped through his mind unbidden.

“Hey. You, uh, like the graphs?”

The older boy turned to look at Sora, his cyan eyes shimmering beneath a silvery-blue curtain of hair. Realizing he was staring, Sora blinked and refocused on a poster of graphs of various equations on the other side of the room.

“Yeah! Just refreshing my memory, you know? I’m Sora, by the way!” He forced a convincing grin and instinctively moved to offer a hand before deciding against touching the silver-haired boy’s hand– he couldn’t possibly– and instead draping his arm over the side of his desk.

“I’m Riku,” he replied, his voice low and cool. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around before…”

“Neither have I! Seen you, I mean!”

Their conversation was cut short by the teacher arriving– an older man with a wild ponytail and a dignified, straight-cut mustache. He stepped up in front of the class with a slight smile.

“Welcome, students!” he announced. “I see we have some new and old faces here today… You may call me Professor Eraqus.”

As Eraqus began his lesson, the ruffling of papers and zipping of zippers faded in throughout the classroom. Amidst the rustle, Sora leaned over to Riku.

“Hey!” he whispered. “So, are you involved in anything?”

“Oh– I’m in fencing,” Riku whispered back. “Been on the team since freshman year.”

“Whoa, really?” Sora beamed. “I just joined the team today!”

“Huh. Imagine that… we’ll have to practice together, won’t we?”

“Yeah! That’ll be great, won’t it?” A challenging grin grew on Sora’s face. “I can’t wait to see the look on your face when I–”

SMACK

A yardstick slashed down and hit the top of Riku’s desk with a deafening noise. Eraqus stood holding it, giving a stern look down at Sora and Riku.

“There will be plenty of time for chatter after class, I assure you.”

“Oh! Uh– sorry, Professor!” said Sora sheepishly.

“Thank you.” Eraqus turned and went back to the lesson. As Sora listened, his gaze drifted back over to Riku. Those arms of his– Sora’s eyes wandered over every contour of the older boy’s muscles, well-defined undoubtedly from so much fencing. Just around his waist, the zipper of his vest split apart, revealing a sliver of his stomach– now that was interesting… he couldn’t really see his abs from there, but… Sora suddenly felt Riku looking back at him and quickly averted his eyes.

“Hey, Sora…” said Riku. “This question requires a partner. Wanna do it?”

“Oh, yeah! Sure!” Sora leaned over to take a look at Riku’s worksheet. He noticed he was very close to the long silver curtain where he was– he could, out of curiosity, accidentally brush against Riku’s hair while getting back up… how did Riku see out of all that anyway?

“Yeah… That’s X divided by this, which means we can balance the equation like this and X equals… six,” said Sora.

“Nice. You’re smarter th– you’re smart.”

When the bell rang, everyone packed up their supplies and headed out of the classroom.

As soon as Sora was out the door, he immediately leaned back against the wall and sank to the floor. Who the hell was that Riku guy anyway? Who was he and what gave him the right to make Sora feel like this? Sora had never really thought of himself as someone who was attracted to guys– and yet his mind was still occupied with thoughts of that silver hair and those piercing eyes. Mentally he was kicking himself for pulling back when he could’ve touched Riku’s hand… oh. That was a good thought, something at the back of his mind nagged at the concept of touching Riku–

“…What am I doing?” Sora thought out loud. Riku was far beyond his league– so cool and badass and unaffected by anything; he had even been on the fencing team longer than him. No, screw it, Sora thought as he got up and headed to his next class. Riku’s cool and I wanna be his friend even if it’s not like that!

---

“…What the hell am I doing?!” Riku thought out loud. He was so stupid, he told himself. This boy, this stupid adorable Sora, all cute brown hair and the brightest blue eyes– and did he reach for his hand at one point? And this boy, this second-year, said unironically that he could beat Riku at fencing and he meant and believed it. And he was so damn friendly. Stupid Riku– couldn’t you ease up for one second to talk to this guy? He mentally kicked himself as he walked to his next class, a million conflicting thoughts running through his head.

Riku’s path to his next class took him away from Sora– thank god– and to the band room, amidst the cacophony of students warming up, that one guy playing Heart And Soul on the piano, and the occasional massive tuba WHOMP in someone’s ear. He got his clarinet from the storage room and began assembling it, trying to take his mind off things, before a young man with a strange fauxhawk stepped up to the podium.

“Hellooooo, everyone! I’m Demyx, and it’s so great to have you all back here… Well, what are we wasting time for? We got some good stuff this year– everyone take a copy and pass the rest down the rows.” He began handing out the sheet music. Riku examined it– A Very Small Wish. Ah, yes– he had played this one last year.

“Oh, I almost forgot… pit orchestra signups for the school performance of Beauty and the Beast are open! Just write your name on the sheet here if you’re interested– it’ll be an extra 50 points on your grade, not to mention major clout with musical fangirls and fanboys.” 

A few people snickered. Riku rolled his eyes, but he got up and wrote his name under the header– he valued the experience, plus he wouldn’t throw away a chance to play this music live. A couple more people followed suit.

“Anyway! Now that you’re all warmed up, let’s start with A Very Small Wish. We’ll take it from the top…”

The band began playing– it was a rather playful yet mysterious waltz-like tune that Riku could easily get absorbed in, even if marred by occasional wrong notes from students less familiar with the song, then transitioned into a wild, fast-paced rhythm that they had to practice considerably slower than normal.

As class was drawing to a close, and everyone packed up their instruments, Riku felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Hey!”

Riku turned around to see an all-too-familiar blond boy, who was busy packing up his trumpet. A grin grew on his face.

“Hey, Roxas.”

“Riku! You ready for fencing tomorrow? I still owe you one for last year.”

“Hey, last year was payback for you punching me in the face.”

“Oh, c’mon, you still remember that?!”

Riku laughed. “I swear you’re more eager to fight your own team than the other schools’.”

Roxas playfully tugged on a handful of Riku’s hair.

“Ah! All right, all right!”

Laughing, the two of them got up and headed off to their next class.

“…Hey, Roxas? Can I trust you with something?”

“Sure!”

Riku took a deep breath. “There’s… this guy in my class. His name’s Sora.”

“Go on…”

“He’s… he’s cute. Like, really hot kind of cute. His hair, his face, just in general… and he’s so excited about things. And he just signed up for fencing this year.” 

“Ohhhhh. Edgy edgy Riku has a crush?” Roxas said with a grin.

Riku sighed. “I guess, yeah.”

“Your secret is safe with me. Want my advice?”

“I’ll pass, Mr. Never-Had-A-Girlfriend.”

“HEY EVERYONE! RIKU H–”

Riku threw himself at Roxas, tackling him to the floor. People stopped and turned to look, thinking a fight was starting.

“It’s all right. Keep walking,” Riku said to the onlookers from on top of Roxas’s chest, glaring at them as if daring them to say anything about their compromising position. His endeavor was rather ruined by Roxas, who was still laughing, even despite Riku’s best efforts to muffle the teen by placing his hand over his mouth.

“You done yet?”

Roxas nodded, though his eyes still twinkled with mirth.

“If I had any doubts about your challenge before, I’m taking it now. Bring it on.” Riku got off of Roxas, trying his best to look unruffled, though his appearance said otherwise. The two of them headed back down the hall, one smiling and the other maintaining a poker-face with a nevertheless slight lilt to his lips.

---

“Challenge accepted, Sora! Bring it on!”

“Hey! Guys! Someone’s challenging Ven on the course! Someone get the music!”

One of the students took out a portable speaker and put on a fast symphonic rock song– a tradition every time someone challenged Ventus’s parkour record. 

“3… 2… 1… GO!”

Sora and Ventus took off as one, vaulting over the first low barrier to reach a slightly angled wall. Sora kicked off the wall, but by the time he had grabbed the ledge and was hoisting himself up, Ventus had already scrambled up the wall like it was nothing. He leaped off the wall, entirely skipping the next barrier and landing with a flawless roll as Sora tried to catch up. 

Running in between two parallel walls, Ventus chained together one, two, three wall-jumps and landed on his feet on another high ledge while Sora tried his best to climb straight up. Soon, Ventus had swung across the pipe frames, hopped up onto another platform, and backflipped across the finish line, causing the gathered crowd to roar with applause. Sora followed several seconds behind him, exhausted and wheezing, having considerably overexerted himself trying to keep up.

“You’re pretty good, Sora!” said Ventus, giving Sora a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “That was fun.”

“Thanks… seriously though, Ven, how do you do that? The wall-jump stuff?”

“Twenty percent natural talent, eighty percent practice, I guess. You gotta push off in just the right way.”

“Well, I’ll just keep at it, I guess! In the meantime, though, I haven’t actually gotten lunch yet…” The rumble of Sora’s stomach punctuated this emphatically. “Wanna sit with Hayner and I?”

“Sure, why not?”

Sora and Ventus went in to get some chicken sandwiches from the cafeteria, then returned to the grounds. Pence and Olette were already sitting in the shade of a large tree by the parkour course, and Hayner was hanging by his knees from one of the branches– he gave the two boys an upside-down wave as they approached.

“Hey guys!” Sora called out to them. He sat against the tree with the others, and Ventus sat next to him, leaning on him a bit.

“Ayyyyy, Sora!” said Hayner. “I saw your race with Ven! Not bad, but you know the guy whose record Ven beat held it for three years, went off to college, then came back and still held it, right?”

“Really? Who was it?” asked Pence.

“I dunno! It’s… kind of a rumor, actually.”

“Well, Ven’s right here– why don’t we ask him?” Olette giggled.

“Who was it, Ven?” asked Sora excitedly.

“...You’re not gonna believe this?” said Ventus, pausing for a moment. “But it was Professor Larxene.”

“WHAT?!” they all shouted.

“The theater director? That Larxene?” said Pence in disbelief.

“Yeah. I beat her old school record.” Ventus seemed a bit embarrassed at the flattery.

“How long ago was that? I didn’t know the course had even been around for that long!” said Hayner, sitting up on his branch.

“Professor Larxene’s not even that old,” said Ventus. “My brother told me that Axel told him how old she was, but he said that Axel said that Larxene said that if anyone else found out, she would stab them.”

“Yeesh. Yeah, Sora, watch out for Larxene– she can be nasty.”

“I… will keep that in mind, Hayner,” said Sora, a bit unnerved. “I’m still excited for theater, though! I got my audition script today.”

“Beauty and the Beast, right? Any character you’re hoping to get?” asked Ventus.

“I dunno! Lumiere could be fun…”

“Your voice would make a good Chip,” said Hayner.

“Heh, what if they cast you as Gaston?” said Pence.

“I don’t care how good of an actor Sora is, he’s too uncompromisably nice to play Gaston!” laughed Olette.

“And not buff enough,” quipped Hayner.

“Hey, I have muscles! They… exist!” Sora flexed an arm, straining as hard as he could– everyone snorted in laughter, and Sora joined in soon after.

“All right, guys, it looks like recess is almost over,” said Ventus, checking his phone. “We’d better get going.”

“Mkay. See ya later!” said Sora. The friends exchanged waves and headed their separate ways back to class.

---

Once the last bell of the day had rung, everyone began filing out of their classrooms and searching for their friends in the hallways, eager to arrange after-school fun or just catch up on things. Riku, though, made his way to the front doors alone, stopping at his locker along the way to deposit everything he didn’t need for homework.

“Hey! Riku!” a familiar voice called from behind him as he left the building. He looked back to see Sora, whose eyes were as bright as ever as he promptly ran up next to the older teen, skidding to a stop. “How’s your day been?”

Crap. Okay… just stay chill. And don’t undress him in your mind.

“Pretty good, I guess,” said Riku as he went down the short stairway to the sidewalk.

“Got any plans for after school?” asked Sora, bypassing the stairs and jumping off the wall beside them, eliciting a smile from Riku despite his best efforts.

“Nah. Fencing doesn’t start till tomorrow– and I know you got that as well… anything else for you?”

“Well, I’ve got th–” Sora suddenly swallowed his next word.

“Hm?”

“I’ve got fencing and not much else right now.”

Before Riku could ask any more questions, they were interrupted by the sound of clattering wheels. Roxas rushed past them on his skateboard, a huge grin on his face as he shot finger-guns at Sora and Riku.

“Roxas!” Riku yelled after him, exasperated.

The blond did a triple-axel off the wall and zoomed off, still grinning.

“Was that a friend of yours?” 

Riku’s slight smile returned. “Unfortunately, yeah. We’ve been friends since last year– he joined fencing team freshman year and was always kind of on edge, and I must’ve said something wrong, ‘cause he just straight-up punched me in the face.”

“Holy crap, really?!”

“Yeah. Guy’s small, but he really did a number on me. Anyway, after we beat the crap out of each other for a bit… things were basically cool between us from then on. I honestly trust him pretty far.” But that bitch had better not say anything to Sora, Riku thought to himself.

“That’s kinda weird… but I’m glad you’re friends now!” said Sora with a silly grin.

“Heh, yeah, so am I.” 

“Well, I gotta get going– Professor Lexaeus really laid it on us in History and I got a ton of homework to do,” Sora sighed. As he turned to leave, he suddenly turned back. “Uh– I live just down 13th Street and 7th Avenue, by the way!” he added.

“You’re telling me this why?”

“You know, in case we wanna hang out sometime!”

Riku looked at that earnest smile and sighed. Internally, the idea of spending time alone with Sora was putting all kinds of thoughts in his head, each one more lustful than the last, but he managed to keep it from showing lest he embarrass everyone involved. “Sometime, okay?”

“Awesome! I’ll see you tomorrow, okay, Riku?”

“Will do.”

With a wave, Sora and Riku headed home, eagerly anticipating the next day.

---

When Sora arrived home, the door was locked. Looks like Mom forgot to unlock it again…

After looking around to make sure nobody was watching, Sora reached out his hand and clenched his fist. In his hand, a giant metal key suddenly materialized in a flash of light.

I dunno why I can do this… but it sure comes in handy.

As he pointed it at the door handle, a thin blue laser beam fired from the tip of the key into the keyhole, and the lock clicked open. Sora dropped the key on the ground, where it vanished into light, and he headed inside as if nothing strange had happened at all.

Chapter 2: Future Masters

“Give her a dashing, debonair smile!”

“But don’t frighten the poor girl.”

“Impress her with your rapier wit!”

“But be gentle.”

“Shower her with compliments!”

“But be sincere.”

“And above all… you must control your temper!”

“Aaaand cut!” said Pence, who was sitting by the big tree near the parkour course. “Nice work!”

“Your accent’s pretty good, Sora!” said Olette.

“Heh, thanks!” said Sora.

“I dunno about your Beast voice, though, Hayner– it kinda sounds like you’re belching or trying to do Cookie Monster,” Olette added with a laugh.

“Aw, c’mon!” said Hayner. “I’d like to see any of you do better. Sora! I’ll be Lumiere this time, and you do the Beast. Olette, you can still be Mrs. Potts.”

“If you say so,” said Sora, clearing his throat.

“All right…” said Pence. “Action!”

“…What’s taking her so long? I told her to come down… why isn’t she here yet?!”

Hayner and Olette simply stared at Sora, jaws agape– that deep, rich growl that came out of the small teen’s mouth could not possibly have been him.

“...Your turn, Olette,” said Sora confusedly, his voice back to normal.

“Oh! Uh–” She cleared her throat. “Try to be patient, sir. The girl has lost her father and her freedom all in one day.”

“Master, have you sought zat perhaps zis girl could be ze one to break ze spell?” read Hayner as Lumiere– his French accent was laughably bad.

“Of COURSE I have! I’m not a fool…!” Sora thundered, his voice dripping with barely-restrained fury and despair.

“Okay, pause for a sec,” said Hayner. “What the hell is that voice you’re doing and how are you doing it?”

“I don’t know. I’ve always been pretty good at doing voices…” Sora answered in the same menacing rumble.

“Dude, that’s not just being good at doing voices. That’s– holy crap,” said Pence. “You should seriously try out for Beast with that.”

“Wha–?! No, no, I couldn’t,” said Sora, visibly blushing.

“Yeah! You should do it!” said Hayner.

“C’mon! Just for fun!” said Olette.

Sora sighed. “All right… just for fun.”

“There we go!” laughed Hayner. “Anyway, let’s try again…”

Sora continued practicing his lines, as both Lumiere and the Beast. There was one thing keeping him from fully concentrating, though– the anticipation of after school. Not only was it the first day of fencing practice, but Riku would be there, and Sora hadn’t seen him all day. His heart was racing with anticipation, to an almost maddening degree, and every minute he counted seemed to stretch out for hours.

English and Math passed in much the same way, until the final bell rang, at which point Sora dashed out of class, making his way through the gym and the boys’ locker room to the grassy grounds behind the school, soon reaching the fencing practice field– a large, raised square platform emblazoned with the school’s stylized-heart logo.

“Hey! Uh… anyone here?” He quickly realized he had gotten there before anyone else. He stood awkwardly for a bit, not sure if he should use this time to warm up or what, until Hayner showed up, followed by Roxas, and then–

“Riku!” Sora waved to the silver-haired boy. “Where’ve you been, Riku?”

“Sora! Uh… in class?” Riku made his way to the platform. “I guess we don’t have many classes together.”

“I know, right? I’ve been waiting all day!”

“Yeah… me too,” replied Riku, causing Sora’s heart to skip a beat before he continued. “It’s gonna be great to have a blade in my hand again.”

“Oh– yeah!”

The conversations around them quieted suddenly as a sturdy-looking young man with extremely spiky blond hair stepped up to the practice field, eyeing the students intently. Sora tried to avoid meeting his gaze– his mere presence was intimidating. Maybe it was the weathered black jacket he wore, complete with metal shoulder pads. Maybe it was the way he carried himself, strong and alert like a soldier on a battlefield, as if an enemy could appear from around any corner. Most likely, though, it was the gigantic slab of sharpened metal he hefted over his shoulders, a thing far too huge and heavy to possibly be called a sword. Sora gulped. Was that the kind of weapon he would be training to use? Was this guy even allowed to have that on school grounds?

“Well… we’re finally here. Welcome to the fencing team.” His voice carried with it the weight of untold struggles and untold Struggles. “I’m Cloud, and I’m here for one reason: to train you into the greatest fighters Sanctuary Peak has ever seen. Any questions?”

The students were silent except for a few instinctive replies of “no, sir!”

“Good. Now, your uniforms and swords are all here.” Planting his giant sword into the grass beside the practice field, Cloud opened a large duffel bag filled with padded jackets and armored pads in the school colors, and laid out a line of sabers with elegant curved blades and guards. “Take the uniform marked with your name, and take whichever blade speaks to your heart.”

Blade… heart… yeah, Sora thought, an image of his mysterious key-blade flashing through his mind as he got his uniform and took the first sword his eyes landed on. Some of the other students pored over the line of swords carefully, balancing them experimentally to see if any of them somehow mystically resonated with them.

“Remember– always keep your sword pointed down when not in use,” Cloud said as Sora gave his sword a few experimental swishes through the air. “Otherwise we have blood everywhere, you have to clean it up, and I have to do a ton of paperwork. And I don’t need more of that after the Eternal Struggle tournament from three years ago.” A dark look flashed through Cloud’s eyes as he said the last part, and whispers sizzled among the students, mostly about whether he meant the blood or the paperwork. After that, Cloud walked the students through putting on and tightening their uniforms, pads, and helmets properly, and Sora just wriggled into his uniform nervously, squishing his spiky hair into his helmet– it felt quite stifling. Nobody seemed to have brought their gym clothes today– Sora made a mental note to rectify that next time.

“All right, now that everyone’s protected, let’s get down to it. Everyone, pair up, and we’ll go through the basic techniques.”

Sora and Riku looked at each other at the same time.

“You wanna–”

“Heck yes! C’mon, Riku!” 

The two boys stood opposite each other, their eyes flashing with excitement.

“In saber fencing, points can be scored with a stab or a slash. The score zone is anywhere above the belt– one touch ends the duel and scores a point,” Cloud explained. Taking a saber of his own, which looked rather small for him, he demonstrated basic attacks, parries, and ripostes. Sora watched intently, or as intently as he could with Riku opposite him.

“Now, let’s see your form. Sora, Riku, you first. Ready…”

Sora placed his blade against Riku’s, every muscle in his body primed to explode into action the second Cloud said–

“Fight!”

Riku smacked Sora’s blade out of the way so hard it jarred the smaller boy’s wrist, and slashed down at his head with deadly speed. Sora just narrowly brought his blade up to stop Riku’s blow an inch from his helmet. He swung at Riku and met only empty air as Riku stepped back, then lashed out like a snake and jabbed Sora right in the ribs.

“Ow!”

“Point Riku! Footwork, Sora… you gotta move with him!” said Cloud as he moved over to the next set of fighters.

“I gotta ask you something, Sora,” said Riku. “Did you… really expect to beat me in your first practice duel?”

“No! ...Yeah.”

Riku sighed. “You’re really something, you know that? Well, you just gotta practice.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Of course, I’ve been fencing longer than you have.” Riku suddenly smirked. “Which means I’ll always be better.”

Sora’s blood boiled at this. “Oh yeah? You wanna bet?”

“Yeah, sure! I’ll bet that I’ll have more wins by the end of the year.”

“You are going down, Riku! I’m gonna totally crush your record!”

“Sora! Riku! Ready…”

Cloud had come back around to them again. They resumed their ready stances…

“Fight!”

Letting out what was meant to be a ferocious battle cry but came out more as a weird scream, Sora kinda just plowed bodily through Riku’s defense using his saber as a wedge and smacked Riku in the side of the helmet with it– the duel was over before it had even begun.

“Point Sora!”

“Yeah! Now we’re 1-1! So much for your bet, huh?”

“I… really didn’t expect you to go for the idiot charge. I guess that’s valid.”

“Hey!”

“I’ll, uh, try to slow down a little next time so you can actually figure out what to do, okay?” said Riku. “But just for today.”

“Thanks…” Sora scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

When Cloud called the start of their fight again, Riku slashed at Sora’s side just a tiny bit slower than normal. Sora was able to react and parry it, striking back with his own slash that Riku parried. Riku stepped forward, advancing on Sora as he pressed him on defense, pushing Sora closer to the edge of the field. Just as he was about to step off the side, Sora swooped in with an upward slash at Riku’s chin that he had to jump back to dodge– Sora followed up by slashing at Riku the second he landed and then slashing again, intensifying his attack and pushing Riku back, his heartbeat speeding up with the rhythmic clanging of their swords– there was no way Riku was gonna get the best of him here–

“GAH! NO!”

Riku had snuck a sneaky stab in and hit Sora, as if he could have decided to do that the whole time.

“Dang it, now it’s 1-2…!”

“Point Riku… but great recovery, Sora!” said Cloud.

“Hah… really?” Sora panted, stepping off to the side and taking off his helmet. His forehead was already glistening with sweat and his uniform was slightly damp– he was really regretting not bringing his gym clothes.

“Yeah,” said Riku, looking almost as exhausted as Sora. “You actually had me on the ropes there. …By the way, I, uh– don’t suppose you have some water? I forgot mine.”

“Oh! Yeah, sure.” Sora handed Riku his water bottle and watched, intrigued, as the older teen chugged half of it before handing it back. Sora waited until Riku wasn’t looking and took a drink himself– he was a bit disappointed that he couldn’t taste anything distinctly Riku-ish, but still, Riku’s lips had touched this. Wow, you’re desperate, Sora thought to himself.

Cloud took the team through a few more drills and more rounds of practice duels-- by the end of practice, Sora and Riku’s score was 2-8.

“All right, team-- now’s when we break for the day. Turn in your swords, but take your helmets and uniforms with you,” said Cloud. As Sora pulled off his thoroughly-disgusting-at-this-point uniform, Hayner approached him.

“Hey Sora! Pence and Olette and I were gonna head up to Sunset Terrace and grab some ice cream. Wanna come with? You could drag Riku along.”

“Sure!” said Sora. “What do you think, Riku?”

“…I don’t usually eat ice cream, but… sure.”

“Great! Let’s go!”

---

Sora, Hayner, and Riku made their way through the pleasant tree-lined streets of Sanctuary Peak. There were quite a few steep hills to climb to reach Sunset Terrace.

“Ugh… couldn’t have picked an easier place to get to after fencing?” said Riku, the incline not helping his mood considering how tired his legs already were.

“Riku, I thought you were the strongest guy on the team! A few hills should be nothing for you,” laughed Hayner.

“Hey! Riku!” teased Sora as he ran ahead up the hill. “I’m gonna beat you to Sunset Terrace!”

“Whoa, there he goes! You really gonna let him do that to you, Riku?”

“Over my dead body.” Seemingly forgetting his exhaustion, Riku took off after Sora.

Eventually, they reached their destination– a small neighborhood at the highest point in town, set apart from the rest of Sanctuary Peak by pale orangey walls and the colorful rooftops of cute houses.

“So, Hayner, where’s the ice cream place again?” asked Sora. 

“Right up by the clock tower, remember?”

“Oh, yeah! It’s just been a while since I’ve been here.”

They made their way to the brightly decorated storefront of an ice cream shop. Standing at the counter was a long-haired man with a pink apron, a painfully-forced smile, and features somewhere between delicate and corpse-like.

“Welcome to Freezy Friends Ice Cream. What can I get for you?”

“Ayyyy, Professor Vexen! How’s work been?” teased Hayner.

“Marvelous,” Vexen sneered through gritted teeth. The other teens snickered.

“All right… I’ll have strawberry!” said Pence.

“Orange swirl for me,” said Olette.

“I’ll have cake batter,” said Hayner. Vexen’s eye visibly twitched.

“Hmm… just chocolate for me,” said Riku.

“And I’ll have sea salt,” said Sora as they all paid. 

Vexen brought out five ice cream bars. “Have a lovely day.”

“We will!” said Sora as they walked away.

---

“It still screws me up seeing Professor Vexen there, doesn’t it?” said Sora as he ate his sea-salt ice cream. The soft light of the evening sky was broken up by sparkling streetlights as he and his friends walked down the path.

“You’re tellin’ me,” said Pence. “I thought he got paid more than that… Anyway, looks like we’re here!”

Up ahead was Sunset Hill, where the sunset stained the gigantic wide sky a brilliant orange. Subtle shadows danced across the town below.

“What do you think, Riku?” asked Sora. “Isn’t it cool?”

“It’s beautiful…” Riku sat on a bench near the edge of the hill, beneath the light of a lamppost. Sora quickly followed and sat next to him.

“Doesn’t Roxas live around here?” said Olette, sitting on the other side of Sora.

“Yeah, but I’ve never really been up here before,” said Riku.

“You’ve never been to his place?” asked Hayner, sitting next to Riku.

“Nah. I don’t go to people’s houses a lot.”

“I guess I get that,” said Pence, squeezing in next to Hayner. It was getting very cramped on the bench, and Sora was very acutely aware of being pressed against Riku’s warm body.

Keep calm.

“We still gotta hang out sometime, though, remember?” Sora held Riku’s muscular forearm as he said that, in what he hoped would be a friendly gesture.

“Yeah, I remember.” He gave an awkward laugh. “...Hey, uh, Sora, you’re kinda squeezing my hand off.”

Sora realized he was gripping Riku’s arm much harder than he expected, and putting his whole arm into it at that.

“Oh! Uh– sorry.” He let go, dragging his fingertips across Riku’s perfectly smooth skin just a tiny bit. He really couldn’t help himself.

“You know…” Pence gazed thoughtfully into the distance. “Looking at things from up here, everything just looks so perfect and still. Like everything could just stay this way forever.”

Hayner raised an eyebrow at Pence. “Are you always this poetic?”

“Nah. Just… thought of something.”

“Hm. I guess I get what you’re saying…”

The five teens ate their ice cream and chatted until the sun passed below the horizon. As the sky faded from orange to red to black, they said their goodbyes and returned home.

Chapter 3: Sinister Sundown

The chemistry classroom was sterile and white as Riku walked in, from the walls to the desks to the whiteboard, the last of which bore a series of immaculately-printed notes written in blue marker. As much as Riku enjoyed the subject, chemistry with Professor Vexen was one of the classes he least looked forward to. He found his desk and sat down, next to a short blond boy with blue eyes.

“Oh, hey Roxas,” he said.

“Huh?” The boy turned around and laughed. “I’m not Roxas, I’m Ventus. Most people call me Ven.”

“Oh. Crap,” said Riku, slightly embarrassed. “You look just like him.”

“We’re actually twins! You’re Riku, right? Roxas actually told me about you.”

“Did he now? What did he say?”

Ventus lowered his head and grinned. “He said you were, and I quote, an edgy bitch.”

“Oh for–” Riku slapped the top of his desk, smiling slightly. “I am gonna get him, I swear.”

“I don’t even know where he learns those words,” Ventus laughed. Their conversation was cut short as Vexen entered the classroom.

“Welcome back,” said Vexen, his black coat swishing as he walked around the desks, collecting worksheets. “I trust you’ve all completed yesterday’s assignment…” He suddenly stopped in front of Hayner, who was seated near the back of the room.

“Your assignment?” he repeated, giving Hayner an icy green stare.

“Uh…” Hayner was sweating as if he had a gun pressed to his head. “I’ll– I’ll get it in tomorrow, mkay?”

Vexen furrowed his brow and turned away dismissively. “And you call yourself a student of science… how disappointing,” he scoffed as he returned to the front of the room. The class’s eyes were unflinchingly fixed at attention. “Now, then… today we’ll be continuing with elements and compounds. Open your textbooks to page twenty-five…”

As Vexen began the lesson, Riku’s phone vibrated against his hip. Covertly slipping it out of his pocket so as not to incur Vexen’s wrath, he noticed he had a text from an unfamiliar number:

Ayyyyy Riku! It’s Hayner! We gotta hang out after school, ok? We’ll meet at the corner of 13th and Margin – that’s on the other side of town, near Neverdark. Don’t be late!

Riku looked back. Hayner was diligently taking notes, still occasionally giving Vexen a fearful glance, and his phone was nowhere near visible. A sinking fear slowly grew in Riku’s stomach. He had business to take care of after school.

---

Riku was relieved when class let out, freeing him from having to sit with his anxiety burgeoning within him. He had to find some way to take his mind off things.

“Hey! Riku!”

Oh.

That would do it.

“What’s up? How was class?” asked Sora in his unmistakably and adorably cheerful voice.

“It was…” Riku sighed. “…it was kinda rough. Professor Vexen is the hardest hardass you will ever meet, I swear to god.”

Sora grinned. “I bet he’s trying to make up for his ice-cream-stained image.”

Riku couldn’t help but snort in laughter. God, that smile was infectious. “I guess. Anyway, where are you going next?”

“Oh, I got History.”

“That’s Professor Lexaeus, right? I think that’s on the way to my next class,” said Riku.

“Awesome! Let’s go together!” exclaimed Sora.

“Uh– really? Okay.” 

Riku headed off, Sora following beside him as they made their way through the bustling hall to a stairway that seemed a fair bit more empty.

“So, Riku! Are you doing anything after school?” inquired Sora.

“Nah,” Riku lied, pushing from his mind the message from earlier, and also the response “you”. He slowed down and leaned on the railing– he actually had some semi-alone time with Sora here.

“Well, I was thinking– oh, hey Ven!”

“Ven? I’m Roxas,” said the blond boy, who had taken this moment to interrupt them on his way up the stairs.

So much for alone time.

“Oh! Yeah,” said Sora. “I don’t think I ever knew you and Ven were, like, actually twins.”

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know,” said Roxas with a little grin. “So, you excited to get bashed by Riku again tomorrow?”

Roxas. I hate you.

“As if!” exclaimed Sora. “I’ve been practicing!”

“With what? It’s not like we got to take our swords home.”

Sora hesitated for a moment. “You know… other stuff. Either way, I’m not gonna lose to you so easily this time!”

“I see how it is. Riku, are you gonna let him talk to you like that?” teased Roxas.

“You think?” said Riku.

“You know what, Riku? Let’s have a practice fight at my place! After school!” Sora’s expression was glowingly bright. “I’ll get some stuff we can use as swords!”

Riku sighed. “As great as that sounds, I’m actually busy this afternoon. Another time, though, sure.”

“Aw… all right. Now I gotta get to class– don’t chicken out when the time comes!” Sora ran off, and Roxas followed along with him. 

Riku smiled, momentarily forgetting the thought of that text message that had wormed itself back into his mind. Honestly, it was as if Sora was the master fighter here.

“I won’t, Sora. I promise you that.”

---

After school, Riku left the building, trying to keep his distance from people, and instinctively looking over his shoulder when he left the school grounds. He got into his car and drove off, heading toward the edge of Sanctuary Peak and down the highway. The tall black buildings of the city of Neverdark loomed in the distance. He pulled up to the corner of 13th and Margin, parking next to an old car wash and waiting outside. Eventually, he was approached by a tall, pale woman in a long black jacket.

“Riku.” She smiled thinly at him through crimson lipstick. Her voice was deep and velvety.

“Maleficent.”

“How wonderful that you could make it here… come now; your friend Hayner is waiting.” She gave a slight sarcastic laugh and led Riku to a nearby apartment building, where he followed her up to a sparsely-furnished third-floor apartment. A strong smell of weed hit his nose as Maleficent opened the door. Inside, his fellow gangsters were waiting.

“Look at that– Riku made it!” chided a black-haired boy from the central table, where he was engaged in a card game with a lanky, heavily-tattooed man across from him.

“Hey, Vanitas…” Riku sighed. “You seem to be doing well.”

“You bet,” said Vanitas with a grin as he slapped down a handful of cards. “Just slammed this loser out of fifty bucks. Pay up, Sneak.” 

The tattooed man grumbled and handed Vanitas a wad of bills. 

Maleficent laughed. “Now now, Vanitas. Be careful that you’re not making enemies.” She took a seat next to a tan man with silver hair and an imposing figure– he was seated in a leather armchair that matched his black coat and was quietly looking down at the proceedings with his orange eyes.

“Like anyone here gives a fuck,” scoffed Vanitas. “Besides, with Riku here, we’ll have plenty of cash to go around. Isn’t that right, Ansem?”

“Indeed,” said Ansem. “Riku will play a special role in tonight’s operation… he should feel honored.”

“Honored… that’s one way of putting it,” said Riku. “I’m guessing you finished casing the joint?”

“All thanks to yours truly,” said Sneak. “The sucker has a safe up in the attic. We break in, you do your thing with that weird key-blade, and we got the money he owes us, no problem.”

Riku nodded. “A quick in-and-out, huh… no blood, hopefully.”

“Deadass, I hope we get to bash him up a little,” said Vanitas, pounding his fist into his other hand. “Guy’s gotta learn not to fuck with the Seekers.”

“Calm yourself, Vanitas. He will learn, make no mistake,” said Maleficent. “Now then… you and Riku will serve as the primary force. If the situation goes wrong, Sneak and Thorn will provide backup.”

“And what about you two?” asked Riku.

Maleficent rested a long-nailed hand on Ansem’s shoulder. “We have… a date. Isn’t that right, Ansem?”

Ansem gave a wicked smile at Maleficent. “Certainly.”

Vanitas stuck two fingers in his mouth and made a sarcastic gagging noise.

---

“The fuck do they even do on their dates– kick puppies?” said Vanitas. It was night now, and the streetlights streaked by as he tore down the highway on his sleek, red-and-black motorcycle.

“Beats me. The less I think about their relationship, the better,” said Riku, hanging onto the back. “And you’re one to talk about kicking puppies, Mr. I-Want-An-Excuse-To-Beat-This-Guy-Up.”

“Hey, it’s for the good of the gang, Riku. You should know that; you’ve been here long enough.”

“Good of the gang or not, we can’t blow the mission because of your bloodlust.”

“Who’s driving the bike to the mission? Me or you? Fuck off.”

They soon reached their destination, Vanitas parking his motorcycle about a block away from the house so as not to alert anybody. Sneak pulled up in his car shortly after and hopped out, accompanied by a burly dark-skinned man with wild orange hair.

“You remember the plan?” whispered Sneak. Riku and Vanitas nodded.

“Ping us if you need us,” said Thorn.

“Gotcha.”

Riku and Vanitas approached the house– it was a seemingly normal two-floor house, with another window up top leading into the attic. Something was unusual, though– the window was already open, though the attic behind it was still dark.

“That’s not good…” said Riku. “You think someone beat us to it?

“Maybe. Either way, we gotta make this quick.”

Taking care not to make too much noise, the two boys climbed up a pillar and crept across the roof until they were able to slip in through the open window. The attic was filled with cardboard boxes and dusty wooden crates– there didn’t seem to be any sign of activity among them.

“What do you think’s in these?” whispered Riku.

“Probably stuff for the museum. Doesn’t matter– all we want is the safe. It’s gotta be here somewhere…” Vanitas poked around the stacks of boxes.

“This guy runs the museum?”

“Nah, the museum’s run by that Cid guy. This guy’s probably a buddy of his.”

As Vanitas was investigating the clutter, there was a sudden movement behind him.

“Vanitas! Look out!” shouted Riku.

A knife came swinging down at the black-haired boy, who narrowly turned around and backed off in time to avoid it. The figure holding the knife stepped out of the shadows– he was wearing all black, with a motorcycle helmet obscuring his face and an assortment of armored purple guards and pads. He was larger than he had seemed at first.

“Beat it, you two. I got to this job first,” he rasped from behind his visor.

“Fuck that. This is Seeker territory and you’re not taking our score,” said Vanitas, taking out a tire iron and hefting it threateningly. “Riku? Let’s get him.”

“Guess you’re getting what you wanted, huh?” said Riku to Vanitas, trying to conceal his fear at facing down a man with a knife. He reached behind one of the crates, out of sight of the others, and clenched his fist with a wave of his hand as if snatching something out of midair. With a bassy whoosh of swirling darkness, a dark, vaguely key-shaped sword shaped like a demonic wing appeared in his hand, looking to the man as if he had just pulled it from the stacks of clutter. 

“Cosplay toys to a knife fight? I see ya, kid,” the man scoffed. He swung his knife at Riku, but Riku was shockingly fast– he brought his sword up and the knife clanged off of it. Vanitas stepped up, wound up, and whacked the man in his helmet with the tire iron. He clutched his head and stepped back, uninjured but disoriented by the sudden impact. Riku took his chance to lunge at the man, swinging his sword directly at his knife hand, smashing his fingers and forcing him to drop the knife. A second later, Riku was sent reeling back as the man’s armored fist cracked him across the jaw. He felt his heart racing as the pain shot through him and everything seemed to slow down from adrenaline– if that had been the knife, he would have been dead, he thought; it was a good thing he knew how to disarm someone. Now he was backed against the wall, though. He swallowed the blood in his mouth and ducked as the man tried to grab him.

“Hey, loser!” Vanitas rushed up from behind and brought his tire iron down on the man’s unarmored back, causing him to fall forward into a stack of crates. “Take your armor off and fight us like a man, bitch!”

Riku scrambled to the side as the man got to his feet, slamming his fist into Vanitas’s gut. The black-haired boy winced as he grabbed the man’s arm and kicked him in the shin-- to no avail, thanks to his shin guards.

“Some man, fighting two-on-one,” taunted the raspy voice, punching Vanitas in the face with his left arm and letting him crumple to the floor.

Right at that moment, Riku jumped and swung his blade into the man’s face with a crunch of breaking fiberglass– the blade had actually embedded itself into his visor, and as Riku wrenched it free, the helmet was torn off the man’s head and flung across the attic. In the man’s brief moment of shock, Riku smacked him hard in the side of the head with the flat of the blade. He staggered and collapsed.

“Vanitas!” Riku ran over to his teammate. “You okay?”

“Of course. Who do you think I am?” He pulled himself to his feet, grinning through the growing bruise on his cheek. “Takes more than that to put a Seeker down.”

“All right– I need you to get this guy out of here before the homeowner wakes up. I’ll take care of the safe.”

While Vanitas dragged the helpless armored man out of the house through the window, Riku resumed his search for the safe. He found it tucked away by a stack of old files, a fair bit smaller than he was anticipating. On the front was a combination lock, but Riku was undeterred– he pointed his sword at the safe, and a thin blue laser beam emanated from the tip and struck the lock, causing it to instantly click open. Brimming with anticipation, Riku opened the safe.

He expected to see stacks of cash when he looked inside, but at first he thought it was empty. It was then that he noticed the small crown-shaped ornament that lay within– exquisitely carved, made of what looked like polished obsidian, with a little hole in one of the crown’s three points. The shape seemed somewhat familiar. Riku took the crown, closed the safe, and quickly followed Vanitas out of the house.

---

“Did you get a look at the guy’s face?” asked Thorn once they had parked back at the Seekers’ apartment building.

“Nah, he had a ski mask on,” said Vanitas.

“Damn. Dunno if he was an enemy of the gang or what the fuck, then,” said Thorn.

“And no cash in the safe?” asked Sneak, sounding audibly disappointed.

“Nope,” said Riku, holding the black crown. “But this ornament– if it was in a museum curator’s safe, it’s gotta be valuable.”

“I bet Maleficent would like it. Seems like her thing,” joked Thorn. “Hold onto it in case she ever breaks it off with the boss!”

“Hell no,” laughed Vanitas.

Riku picked up his phone– he had left it at the apartment for fear of being traced– and took a picture of the ornament. “I honestly wanna know what this is. I think I’ve seen this symbol before…” It was then that it hit him, as he remembered a very distinctive necklace–

“Sora.”

“Hm?”

“Nothing.” Riku made a mental note to ask Sora about this the next day. “I gotta get going. You two hold onto the crown until Ansem and Maleficent get here.”

“Aight. See ya, Riku– Seekers for life, man!” called Thorn with a wave.

“Yeah… Seekers for life!” Riku called back as he left. He found his car and began the trip back home, where he would act like he hadn’t just been involved in a burglary and a knife fight– all in a day’s work for Riku. Even when he reached his house, the tall black buildings of Neverdark stood still in the distance.

Notes:

You might recognize some of the shady folks Riku interacts with– Sneak, Thorn, and the armored thief are all based on various Heartless bosses! Keep your eyes peeled for more to show up.

Chapter 4: Lazy Afternoons

The wheels of Roxas’s skateboard clattered across the asphalt as he sped down the road, a wide smile on his face. Just behind him, Ventus jumped over a mailbox and pushed off, launching himself through the air. The road from Sunset Terrace was mostly downhill and full of turns, an excellent place for skating, and Roxas made the most of this every day.

“It’s over, Ven! I got wheels and you don’t!” Roxas taunted.

“Did you forget what that thing in front of you is?” said Ventus, unfazed, pointing ahead of his twin.

Unfortunately for Roxas, Ventus was right– there was still one last rather-steep upward slope between them and Sanctuary Peak High, and there was no way Roxas was skating up that. He hopped off his skateboard and ran up the hill, but by the time he was halfway up, Ventus had closed the distance and pulled ahead of him. The school was just across the street.

“Oh, no you don’t…” Roxas jumped back on his skateboard and kicked off as hard as he could, ollying the curb, rail-grinding up the stairs to the grounds, and flying past Ventus just half a second after Ventus had stepped on the steps to the school proper. Another student had just gone in, and Roxas took that opportunity to zoom straight through the doors into the foyer, where he flipped his board up and caught it triumphantly.

“Ha ha! I win!” He looked back at Ventus, who was still standing on the steps just outside the door.

“You wish, Roxas. The race was to the steps, not to the door.”

“Ven, I distinctly remember you saying ‘first to the school wins.’ The steps aren’t the school.”

“Roxas, you’re lucky I’m not counting the start of the grounds as ‘the school’.”

They both sighed.

“Rematch tomorrow?”

“You’re on.”

---

After the twins went their separate ways, Roxas put his skateboard away in his locker and headed off to class. As he wandered through the halls, the excitement from his daily race against Ventus began to leave him. The spring in his step faded somewhat. The sounds around him seemed to grow louder and more pressing, and he kept his head down. Other students bustled past him, but he tried not to make eye contact with any of them. Eventually, he trundled into the Physics classroom and sat down.

Aside from Professor Saix being as scary as usual, class was very uneventful. Band passed in much the same way, as did the rest of his classes until lunchtime.

As he stood in the lunch line, a young man with a majestic mane of fiery red hair walked in, pushing a cart with a bucket, mop, and cleaning supplies. A few whispers began to sizzle among the students in the line, and Roxas immediately smiled. It was the storied hero and legendary sage of the school, the Cleanser in Flame, Axel.

“Hey! Axel!” Roxas got his food and sat over by the redheaded janitor, relieved to finally have one of his friends around.

“Heyyy. ‘Sup, Roxas?” said Axel.

“Not much. Honestly, that’s most days, though… What about you?” 

A couple other students leaned in. Axel always had a story to tell.

“Well, just last period, someone accidentally blew up a beaker in Vexen’s class and caused a chemical spill. Like, serious stuff. Luckily, I was right there.”

“Jeez! Yeah, that could’ve been bad.”

“Not only that, I was in the teachers’ lounge the other day when I heard Larxene talking about getting revenge on Luxord for slamming her out of a month’s pay in poker. Don’t be surprised if you don’t see your Psych teacher again after today.”

The students shivered. Axel was clearly joking, but they all knew Larxene’s reputation.

“Wow… Oh, by the way! We’re still meeting at the clock tower tonight, right?”

“You kidding? I wouldn’t miss it to save my life.” Axel grinned. “Now, I gotta get back to my janitorial duties. Always messes to clean up at lunchtime, especially with you kids.”

Roxas gave a little wave as Axel left, and went to sit by himself over by the window. Outside, he could see Ventus practicing on the parkour course as he usually was, surrounded by friends and competitors. For a moment he considered going out to join them, but he couldn’t bring himself to move toward the door. He contented himself with eating his sandwich on his own.

---

“Welcome, students,” said Professor Eraqus when Math had rolled around and Roxas was seated. “Today is rather special– we have a new transfer student. I hereby introduce… Xion.”

“...Hi.” The black-haired girl sitting next to Roxas shrunk back into her chair as the eyes of the class turned to look at her. Eraqus, for all his wisdom, seemed not to have known that putting the new kid on the spot was not a good idea.

“Yes, yes, welcome, Xion. I do hope you’ll find yourself at home here at Sanctuary Peak High. Now! On to business…” Eraqus walked around the room, handing out today’s worksheets.

Throughout class, Xion remained absolutely quiet, not even raising her hand once. As Roxas looked at her, he felt a strange melancholy– he certainly was able to relate to the feeling of being new and alone.

“Hi, Xion,” said Roxas when Eraqus returned to his desk. “I’m Roxas. You, uh, okay?”

She glanced at him, but didn’t respond. Roxas turned slightly red and looked back down at his worksheet. It hadn’t been this awkward when he had first met Axel. Probably because of how naturally outgoing Axel was– he always had something to say, whereas Roxas had been the quiet, withdrawn one. If Xion wanted to keep to herself, Roxas thought, he certainly knew that feeling enough from experience to respect it… but on the other hand, she looked like she could use someone to talk to. 

His mind eventually shifted elsewhere, focusing instead on graphing the series of quadratic equations before him– these were always a pain.

When the bell rang, Roxas got up to leave as usual.

“...Roxas?”

He had just gotten into the hallway when he stopped and turned around at the sound of a soft girl’s voice behind him. It was Xion.

“Hm? Oh! Yeah, that’s me…”

“I wanted to talk to you earlier… but I couldn’t really,” said Xion, still standing a bit awkwardly. “You know, class and everything…”

“No, it’s fine!” said Roxas. “Professor Eraqus is really uptight, so I don’t blame you.” He smiled, and Xion smiled back.

“I’ve been wanting to make some friends here, but that’s been hard since I just got here… Do you think we could be friends?”

“Oh, sure! Definitely!” Roxas exclaimed. Xion’s eyes seemed to sparkle briefly.

“I think we might have some more classes together… Do you have Biology third period on B days?”

“Yeah! I’m guessing you have it too?”

Xion nodded. “This is great! We can see each other again tomorrow.”

“Yeah!” Roxas cleared his throat awkwardly. “...So. I gotta get to class.”

“Me too. See you later, I guess!”

As Roxas left, the hallways felt a lot less overwhelmingly busy than usual.

---

By the time Roxas had left his last class of the day, he had accumulated at least two hours’ worth of homework. Fencing practice flew by, though he did get another chance to stomp Riku in a Struggle battle. He skateboarded home, considerably less than enthusiastic about his workload, but resigned to his duty nonetheless. He did have one thing to look forward to, after all. After he was finished, his destination was the Sunset Terrace clock tower, which overlooked the cliffside plaza and the light rail station. When he reached the plaza, he was greeted by who else but Axel.

“Hey, Roxas!” Axel called, waving to him.

“Hey Axel! Good to see you could make it!”

“I almost thought I wouldn’t be able to. The school kept me overtime. Dude– take my advice? Never become a school janitor. It’s not worth it.” Axel was only semi-joking, but Roxas laughed anyway.

“Well, I wasn’t planning to, so that’s good, I guess,” said Roxas as they walked to the station. “So, did you get the ice cream already?”

“Yep. Got it just before you arrived.”

“Awesome! C’mon, let’s go.”

The Sunset Terrace light rail station had a certain vulnerability few people other than Axel and Roxas knew about: by climbing on a low-ish wall near the back and standing on the nearby fence, it was possible to access an employee-only stairway that led straight to the very top of the clock tower. Ever since Axel and Roxas had met, they would always go to the clock tower after school to hang out and eat sea-salt ice cream, because that was What Friends Did.

Axel was the first one up onto the high ledge. “Need a hand up?” he asked, reaching a hand down as Roxas balanced on the fence.

“Nah, I’m fine! I can make it.” Roxas pushed off the fence and jumped, wobbling just before his takeoff and just managing to make it and pull himself up.

They sat on the very edge of the platform, unafraid of the dangerous height. The sun had begun to set, painting the town in its orange glow.

“So, Axel…” said Roxas as he ate his ice cream. “I… met this girl today.”

“Ayyy, Roxas! Look at you!” snickered Axel. “Who is it?”

“Her name is Xion. She’s a transfer student from… I dunno where.”

“Xion, huh? Isn’t she the quiet one with the black hair?”

“Yeah. I talked to her a little in Math, and she said she needed friends.”

“Leave it to our Roxas to save the day in that regard!” Axel laughed. “You should invite her up here someday.”

“Oh! You think so?”

“Yeah. The more friends, the better.”

Roxas didn’t have to think very hard. “Sounds good to me! I’ll invite her next time.”

Axel smiled a teal-tinted smile. “So, anyway… I’m guessing you already have another crazy adventure plan for the weekend?

“Yeah!” Roxas had had a plan in mind since the week started. “I wanna check out the old power plant– you know about it, right?”

“Yeah… they stopped using it after the shift to green energy, didn’t they?” Axel shrugged. “I dunno why they haven’t torn it down yet. Though I’ve heard drug dealers have used the tunnels beneath the plant.”

“Drug dealers? Eeh, I dunno…” said Roxas, betraying a bit of nervousness. “I did hear Pence talking about how some people say there are ghosts there.”

Axel gave Roxas a severe noogie. “Come on , Roxas, you’re in high school and you still believe in ghosts?”

“Hey! You know weird things happen all the time around here,” said an indignant Roxas.

“True… but still, ghosts are a bit much.”

“And drug dealers aren’t?”

Axel raised a finger… then lowered it. They both laughed.

“But yeah,” said Axel, “I wouldn’t mind checking out that old place. We’ll see if Xion wants to come too.”

“Yeah!”

They finished their ice cream as the sun began to sink below the horizon. They climbed back down the tower and waved goodbye, and Roxas went home already awaiting the next time he could see his friends. Another day, and another sunset, certainly.

Chapter 5: Another Side

Earlier that same day…

The History classroom was more akin to an old Victorian library than a classroom– walls lined with dark wood shelves packed with colorful textbooks and leatherbound tomes, antique-looking maps and globes, and plushy red armchairs that Sora always scrambled to sit in before anyone else could. Today was no different in that regard. Standing behind a large carved-wood desk was Professor Lexaeus, a square-jawed mountain of a man who spoke concisely yet commandingly.

“During the 16th century, numerous expeditions were sent by the European colonial powers to search for such mythical cities, but Hollow Bastion was the target of most of them,” explained Lexaeus. On the projector screen was an image of an extravagant castle of white marble, labeled in the textbook as an 16th-century artist’s impression of the city.

Sora was taking notes, following along in his textbook while playing absentmindedly with his necklace.

 “According to legend, it was an ancient city of grand architecture and unimaginable wealth, beyond anything previously seen in the Americas,” Lexaeus continued. “Much blood was shed in search of it, and even into the founding of the United States, rumors of Hollow Bastion still circulated. Even what would eventually become our town of Sanctuary Peak was founded by the archaeologist Haley Gallagher, who found a set of buried ruins he claimed to be part of Hollow Bastion– it turned out to be of ancient Mississippian origin. Needless to say, little to no evidence of Hollow Bastion’s existence as it is described in myth has been found.”

Sora’s concentration was disrupted by the buzz of his phone. Aside from a series of push notifications from various gacha games, there was a text from Riku.

Hey Sora. There’s something important I gotta tell you about before fencing.

Well, if that wasn’t the vaguest, most ambiguous message ever sent, thought Sora, his mind momentarily running wild with possibilities for Riku’s unknown confession and causing his face to become slightly hot before resuming rational thought.

When Lexaeus had finished his presentation, he wordlessly passed out a worksheet to everyone– several groans rose from the class as they saw multiple long-form essay questions. Sora found it hard to get too upset, though, mostly because of how hyped he was for the afternoon’s fencing practice as he left for his next class.

---

After Sora’s classes were finished, he made his way to the boys’ locker room to change into his gym clothes, which he had mercifully placed in his locker ahead of time. The locker room was silent, and there didn’t seem to be anyone else there. Looks like I’m the first one here again… He slid his vest off and pulled his shirt over his head while looking for his locker, multitasking a bit, and was unzipping his pants when he turned down the next row of lockers–

“GAH!” 

Sora jumped about a foot in the air. Riku was already there, shirtless and just leaning over to put on his gym shorts. The younger boy’s startled yelp caused Riku to stand up abruptly and slam his head into the open locker door.

“OW! Damn it, Sora…!”

“Riku, it’s not my fault you’re able to change clothes without anyone even realizing you’re there!” Sora complained, a slight laugh coming through in his voice. “Make some noise next time!”

“Sure, fine…” Riku rubbed his bruised head and pulled up his shorts. Momentarily forgetting about the previous awkward situation, Sora caught himself gazing at Riku’s pale thighs– perfectly toned from holding fighting stances and leaping around battlefields, no doubt. When his shorts covered that up, the waistband catching momentarily on the bulge in his underwear before snapping into its proper place, Sora’s eyes traveled to Riku’s chest – he had been wondering what Riku looked like with his shirt off since the first day they’d met, and his elegant yet visibly powerful body lived up to all of Sora’s expectations and then some. Forget fencing pads, Sora could’ve sworn Riku’s abs could deflect a saber all on their own. It was lucky that Riku was too busy getting dressed to notice him staring.

“Oh, by the way–” Riku lowered his voice, as other students were starting to arrive in the locker room, and put on his gym shirt. “By the way, I wanted to ask you about something.”

“Hm?” Sora gathered his gym clothes from his locker and got dressed quickly, his focus on Riku’s abs broken. “What is it?”

Riku pulled out his phone and opened his photos. “Isn’t this symbol the same as your necklace?” He showed Sora the photo he had taken of the obsidian crown ornament.

“Oh, yeah!” Sora pulled out his necklace. The shapes were exactly the same.

“Do you know what it means?” asked Riku.

“It’s supposed to be from the writings of Jesse Flynn.”

“Jesse Flynn… oh yeah, Professor Lexaeus mentioned him last time I had History. The traveling anthropologist, right?”

“Yep. Seeker of Hollow Bastion, notable for actually managing to not murder anyone in pursuit of it,” Sora reiterated what he had learned from Lexaeus’s readings.

“So this ornament here–” Riku stopped himself from saying too much about how he had found the little obsidian crown. “This was supposed to be displayed in the Highwind Museum of History. So it’s gotta be pretty old, right?”

“Riku, do you think this actually, literally came from Hollow Bastion?” joked Sora.

“No, of course not!” Riku laughed. “I wish it did, though… either way, if it’s old enough, it might actually date back to Flynn’s time.”

“And that’s still totally cool!” Sora exclaimed. “My dad actually had this necklace before me– it’s supposed to be pretty old too; it’s been in my family for a while, but I don’t think it’s as special as that obsidian crown you found.”

“Hey, who knows?” Riku shrugged as they headed out to the grounds with the other students. 

When they arrived at the practice arena, the trainees all lined up by the fence, and the two friends with them. Cloud was already there, his colossal sword planted into the dirt right next to the arena. 

“Welcome back,” said Cloud, stern and brooding as ever. “Good to see you’re all still here after one day… because trust me, it will get harder. Today we begin training in the honorable tradition of Sanctuary Peak: the Struggle.”

Excited murmurs rose from the crowd– they knew what he was talking about. Cloud had brought out another duffel bag, different from the one for the sabers, as well as a large, heavy-duty plastic case. 

“The Struggle is very different from traditional fencing, but the concept is just as old and venerable, and now modern technology has perfected it.” He opened the duffel bag and produced a gold-painted bat-like weapon with a padded blue “blade”, one of many in the bag. Opening the case, he revealed several advanced-looking face visors of curved plexiglass, which Sora recognized from school Struggle matches he had watched before.

“Put these visors on, and you’ll see.”

The eager students hastened to try them on. Sora negotiated the advanced-looking mechanized headstrap through his spiky hair until it sat comfortably on his head, then pressed the Power button. With a pulse of wireframe along the floor of the practice arena, a heads-up display appeared in the top half of his field of vision, and he could see a number 0 above the heads of all the other students wearing visors. A series of “oooo”s traveled around the arena as the new trainees got their first taste of the state-of-the-art AR display, and Sora couldn’t blame them– he felt like some kind of space warrior with this on.

“Roxas. Sora. Come up front so we can demonstrate the rules.”

Sora eagerly ran up next to Cloud alongside Roxas, who had a dangerous-looking smirk on his face. Cloud pressed a few buttons on his phone, and the number above Roxas cycled up to 100, as did the display of Sora’s own number.

“I’ve given you each the standard starting amount of orbs. Roxas, strike Sora and show us what happens on a hit.”

Strike–? Sora had barely realized what was about to happen when Roxas slammed the bat into his shoulder, rather harder than was necessary.

“OW!” A shower of digital red orbs scattered out from him as he recoiled in pain, bouncing and plinking all over the arena like crystal basketballs. Roxas ran through the field of dropped orbs as if it were second nature, automatically drawing them in and seemingly absorbing them into his own body, causing the number above him to increase to 128.

“As you can see, when you hit your opponent, they lose orbs, which you must then collect for yourself. Whoever has the most orbs when time runs out is the winner,” explained Cloud. “Now– Sora, Roxas, you stay together. Everyone else, pair up.”

Cloud assigned everyone a partner, instructing them to take turns trying to strike the other while they dodged. The weight of the bat was unfamiliar in Sora’s hands, though, and whenever he tried to slash at Roxas, the blond boy would dash out of the way with such speed and grace as if space had warped around him.

“Aargh! C’mon, can I get one hit?” pleaded Sora as his bat whipped through empty air again.

“Why should I slow down for a newbie?” taunted Roxas, dancing out of the way of another slash. “Besides, I’m not keeping score like you are with Riku, so this only benefits you.”

Sora clenched his grip on his bat. He could tell Roxas was lording this over him just a bit. Roxas swung overhead at him next– Sora backstepped and swung his bat up to guard right on cue, but Roxas slid in a circle around to Sora’s back and smacked him in the back once, twice, three times. The brunet tripped forward and collapsed to all fours, winded and disoriented. How did he…?

“And… stop,” said Cloud. 

All the trainees returned to attention, Sora getting to his feet.

“Even if I didn’t know already, I can tell who the first-time Struggle fighters are.” The unimpressed  tone in his voice was palpable, and Sora cringed a bit. “I can tell because you fight like you’re on a fencing piste. That won’t fly here. Struggle battles are freeform and you have a whole other dimension of movement open to you. It’s a lot more like a real fight in that way.”

Sora’s embarrassment shifted into consideration. Cloud was right– he had a whole battlefield to work with.

“Sora. Hayner.”

“Eh?” 

“Battle positions– center of the field. Everyone else, line up by the side. We’re going to do some practice battles, and I wanna see you using the whole field, or you’ll be running laps after class.”

The two boys scurried to the center of the field as Cloud set their orb counters to 100 and put three minutes on the timer. Sora was just relieved to be fighting someone other than Roxas at this point.

“I guess he picked us ‘cause we’re both new to this, huh, Sora?” said Hayner. “Either way, I’m gonna kick you in the, well, orbs.”

“Oh yeah? Well…” Sora scrambled for a comeback. “Good luck doing that against my secret attack!”

“Secret attack, huh? What is it?”

Sora was about to open his mouth to reveal his secret attack, but stopped– he didn’t even have a secret attack. He stood awkwardly in his fighting stance, hoping for Cloud to hurry up and say–

“Fight!”

On Cloud’s command, the boys sprang forward with aggressive opening swings, their bats clashing with a padded THWACK. Hayner pressed forward and shoved Sora with his shoulder, whacking him in the arm. Red orbs scattered forth over to Hayner’s side of the arena, and he quickly disengaged and ran to gather them, turning his back to Sora for a moment. 

Chasing him, Sora managed to catch Hayner before he turned back around and hacked at his back with two wild smacks, showering the field with blue orbs as the startled Hayner whirled around with a yelp. Sora backstepped Hayner’s next slash and kept his eyes on his opponent, not wanting to make Hayner’s mistake, as he backed up and sidestepped through the scattered orbs, attracting them as he went.

“You’re not getting those!” Hayner yelled as he lunged at Sora again.

Sora smacked Hayner’s bat out of the way and swiped back at him, Hayner blocking and swinging at Sora’s head. Sora dove to the ground and rolled at the last second, feeling Hayner’s bat swish through his spikes of hair in a very near miss.

Soon the clock was down to 2 minutes, and the other trainees were watching intently, along with Cloud, whose gaze remained as stoic as ever. Sora had 124 orbs, while Hayner had 76. With such a lead, he was feeling pretty confident now, and he was getting used to the weight of his bat– in fact, he realized it almost perfectly matched that of his mysterious giant key weapon.

They continued trading blows, Sora eventually throwing a slash that Hayner dodged in the direction of. Overextending his swing, Sora spun on his toes and nearly fell over, allowing Hayner to bring his bat down on Sora’s head with a battle cry and a THWUMP that made the other trainees wince. Hayner hit Sora again on his way down– the field was blanketed with glinting red orbs, and Sora’s head was pounding as he struggled to his feet.

One minute left– Sora had 65, Hayner had 90. Sora gritted his teeth, refusing to lose his first Struggle battle in front of everyone– he had to catch up somehow.

“Giving up already?” teased Hayner, seemingly oblivious to all the orbs ripe for the taking behind him.

I can take the red ones back too, right? Sora sprung to his feet and hauled it toward Hayner. Hayner threw up his guard, expecting a charging attack, but Sora dashed right past him, gathering up red orbs by the truckload.

“Gah! No!” Hayner rushed to grab as many orbs as he could before Sora took all of them and managed to grab twelve.

The score was 98 to 102, with Hayner in the lead by just four orbs, and the clock was running down, flashing red and beeping ominously. Sora ran after Hayner, but Hayner sprinted across the arena, staying just out of his reach.

10… 9… 8… 

“Get back here!” yelled Sora, flailing uselessly at Hayner.

“It’s over, Sora! You can’t touch me!” Hayner laughed.

7… 6… 5… 

Sora had to do something. He tried to look for somewhere to corner Hayner, but he was just too quick.

4… 3… 

With not a single second to lose, Sora flung his bat as hard as he possibly could. Hayner’s eyes widened in shock for one precious moment before the flying bat slammed into his stomach. Blue orbs scattered over to Sora, magnetizing into him just as the clock hit zero and the buzzer rang– Sora 101, Hayner 95.

“Match over!” announced Cloud. “The winner... is Sora.”

“Yes! Haha!” Sora jumped and fist-pumped the air, his heart soaring like he had just won the championship. 

Hayner went over to the brunet, catching his breath. The sudden projectile attack seemed to have done a fair number on him, and for a moment Sora was simultaneously concerned that he may have actually hurt him and relieved that the bat had not landed handle-first.

“So… that was your ‘secret attack’ after all, huh?” Hayner said with a sigh of chagrin, lifting his shirt to check for any bruise.

“Yeah– uh, no. I mean… yes?” said Sora. “Yeah. Totally.”

“Are you allowed to do that?” said Hayner. They both looked expectantly at Cloud.

Cloud seemed deep in thought for a moment. “There’s nothing in the rules that forbids you from throwing your weapon– I wouldn’t advise it, though, as you’d be without a weapon.”

“Awesome!” said Sora, considering this a win.

Cloud sighed. “Okay– back in line. Roxas! Riku! Battle positions!”

Sora returned to the line and took a well-needed drink as he watched the fight between Roxas and Riku. He quickly realized his struggle against Roxas had been no accident– Roxas was practically running circles around Riku, darting back and forth at angles that seemed impossible, periodic spurts of green orbs showering the field whenever the blond unleashed a flurry of twirling slashes. Riku was no slouch, though, following Roxas’s movements the best he could until he got the opportunity to go in with quick one-handed swipes. He watched them carefully, trying to analyze their technique, until the three minutes was up and Roxas had solidly trounced Riku, mostly thanks to his speed leaving no fallen orb uncollected.

“Ugh… I’ll get you next time,” said Riku.

“Don’t count on it!” taunted Roxas.

A few more battles and drills later, it was time for practice to end. Cloud gathered up all the bats and visors as the students picked up their things to leave. Sora grimaced as he pulled off his visor, leaving several strips of his hair matted with sweat that quickly turned cold in the wind.

“Hey! Riku!” he called, promptly approaching the silver-haired boy as soon as he had the chance.

“Hey Sora. It, uh… kinda sucks that we didn’t get to fight each other today, huh?” answered Riku.

“Yeah, I was just thinking that! Next time, I guess.” Sora began heading down the way to his house, Riku following next to him. “That Roxas, though… he’s something else, isn’t he?”

“Don’t I know it. He’s a goddamn natural at the Struggle– I dunno how he even does it. I can at least beat him in saber, though,” he said with a thin smile.

“That’s nice… Hey, by the way, wanna come over to my place?” said Sora, his drifting thoughts having hit upon an idea. “I got a stupid amount of homework and I was thinking we could help each other out– well, as long as you’re not busy.”

“Oh, uh…” Riku checked his phone. “Yeah, sure. I mean, I don’t have work today or anything.”

“Great! Yeah, we’re just down a couple blocks.”

---

When they reached Sora’s house, Sora let Riku in. There to greet them was a brown-haired Japanese woman with a bright, welcoming smile that nearly matched her son’s.

“Hey, Mom!”

“Hi, Sora! How was fencing practice today?” She looked at Riku. “Is this a new friend of yours?”

“Yeah! This is Riku!” Sora announced.

“Nice to meet you, Ms…” Riku began.

“Oh, you can just call me Yoko. Sora’s bringing home new friends all the time– it’s wonderful to have you here!” 

“Thanks. That means a lot,” said Riku, a bit of something else behind his voice there– Sora couldn’t quite tell. “I’m just here to do homework with Sora, so… yeah.”

“All right. Well, let me know if you need anything,” said Yoko.

“Okay!” said Sora. He led Riku upstairs to his room, which was dominated by shelves of books and old toys, most of them Disney-related. Tucked in the corner was a sad-looking handmade wooden robot, and a pile of plushies lay on his bed, topped by a chibi cat with a cape and handbag. Sora immediately felt a bit self-conscious as Riku looked around– this wasn’t exactly what most people thought of as cool, and usually he wouldn’t care, but Riku was nothing if not cool.

“Man… I wish I had a room like this.”

“Really?” said a pleasantly surprised Sora, clearing off his desk.

“Yeah. There’s clearly a lot here you care about. I don’t have much of that in my house.”

“What do you mean?”

“Eh, never mind. Let’s just get started,” said Riku. 

Sora had the distinct feeling that Riku was dodging something important, but he decided against pressing him. “All right, let’s start with this one…”

They worked into the early evening. Despite the homework, Sora was quite content, and the time flew by quicker than he expected– they were completely finished by the end.

“We should do this more often, Riku!”

“Hm… I’ll try and make it work, okay?” said Riku. “I appreciate this, though. You figured out stuff I was totally stumped on.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Probably because you don’t overthink things like I do.”

“Hey!” Sora grabbed hold of Riku’s head and gave him a mighty noogie.

“Ah! Get off!”

Soon, they were both laughing.

“All right, I gotta go now. My parents should be expecting me… Tell your mom I said thanks, okay?”

“Okay. See ya, Riku!” called Sora as the silver-haired boy left. He felt a little strange about Riku’s earlier comments and rolled them around in his mind– how was Riku’s home life anyway? Eh, it didn’t matter– the important thing was that the two of them had hung out for the first time, he seemed to like being here, and nothing had gone terribly wrong. 

I gotta plan something for the weekend...

Chapter 6: What Lies Beneath

The auditorium doors gave off a forbidding aura as Sora stood before them, his heart pounding. The area beyond this point was Larxene’s playground, and today, she would be his judge, jury, and– if the rumors he had heard about her were true– potential executioner. Swallowing hard and pushing those thoughts out of his mind, he grasped the cold metal handle and pulled the door open, stepping into the yawning darkness.

“Sora! Glad to see you could make it,” echoed a girlish voice from the stage. The voice’s owner stepped out from behind the red velvet curtains, her hair antennas glinting like golden daggers in the stage lighting.

“Professor Larxene? I’m here to audition…” Sora took a breath to steady himself. “…for the part of the Beast.”

A smile of disbelieving mirth crept across Larxene’s face. “You’re sure… And your audition song?”

“I’m gonna be singing ‘I’ll Begin Again’… from Scrooge.”

Larxene’s grin widened further, and Sora felt uncomfortably like she was sizing him up.

As the backing track began to play, filling the stage with somber horns and violins, Sora took the moment to collect his thoughts, delving deep into the mind of the character he was only auditioning for on a dare. Channeling thoughts of the Beast looking back on his selfish past life and gratefully resolving to change himself, Sora took a deep breath:

“I’ll begin again

I’ll rebuild my life

I will live to know that I fulfilled my life

I’ll begin today

Throw away the past

And the future that I build will be something that will last…”

He sang in the deep, rich baritone that he had miraculously summoned before, miraculous for a boy his size. The longer he sang, the less the surrounding darkness of the auditorium pressed in on him, and the more Larxene’s condescending grin slowly faded.

“I will start anew

I will make amends

And I will make quite certain that the story ends

On a note of hope

On a strong amen

And I will thank the world

And remember when

I was able to begin…

Again!”

As he finished his last high note, silently counting his blessings that he hadn’t damaged his vocal cords by holding that voice out for so long while singing, Larxene nodded to him slowly.

“Interesting… very interesting. Certainly unique…”

Sora had no clue what was going on in that head of hers– but he obviously wasn’t expecting his audition to land someone like him the part, he reminded himself. 

“Next up, I’m gonna have you read through a bit of the script. I hope you’ve practiced!” She giggled. “From the top, Sora!”

Sora cleared his throat and prepared his Beast voice once again:

“What’s taking her so long? I told her to come down… Why isn’t she here yet?!”

Sora didn’t make eye contact with Larxene until he was finished with the scene. When he did, the look on her face seemed just a bit more sincere than before.

“Remarkable performance, Sora…”

“So, uh… was that good?” he said, back to his normal voice.

“Well, I can’t reveal everything now, can I?” teased Larxene. “I’ll be announcing the cast later. Don’t hurt yourself too much stressing over it!” She sent Sora off with another evil grin.

It’s okay, Sora told himself as he left, his hands still a bit sweaty. This was all just a joke, and it’s over now. You’ll probably get Chip or something and it’ll all be cool…

---

Meanwhile, Roxas and Axel were heading out of the school. To Roxas’s elation, Axel didn’t have an extended shift today, so they were planning to get a head start on their weekend adventures.

“Hey Roxas– don’t look now, but I think your mysterious goth friend is over there.”

“Eh?” Roxas looked around. Sure enough, Xion was coming out the door as well, dressed in her signature black hoodie and gray skirt. 

“Hey! Xion!” Roxas called, realizing he had completely forgotten to invite her along with him and Axel that day in class.

“Roxas!” The black-haired girl joined the two boys. “Uhh… this is your friend Axel, right?”

“Yep,” said Axel. “Got it memorized?”

“I think so…”

“So, do you have any plans for tonight?” asked Roxas. “Axel and I are gonna check out the old power plant, and then we’re gonna go have ice cream at Sunset Terrace… and I was kinda hoping you could come with us. You wanna?”

“You want me to hang out with you guys?” Xion seemed a bit surprised, though not put off.

“Yeah! That’s what friends do, isn’t it?”

“Um… sure, I guess!” said Xion, pausing to consider it a bit beforehand. “I haven’t done anything like this in a long time… but I guess it could be fun.”

“You okay, Xion?” Roxas, even not being the most perceptive of boys, felt the uncertainty in her voice.

“Yeah! I’ve just never been to a power plant before.”

“There’s old machines and tunnels and all kinds of cool stuff,” said Roxas with an eager smile. “C’mon, let’s go!”

---

The old power plant was a long walk away from where anyone lived, at the end of a weathered, gravelly road with burgeoning plants growing through cracks in the asphalt. Encircling it was a chain-link fence with a gate that was shut solidly and immutably.

“It’s bigger than I expected…” Xion hooked her fingers into the fence, gazing through at the huge buildings on the other side, at the web of power lines supported by steel pylons and transformers, and at the tall smokestacks rising eerily above them like metallic gravestones for the age of fossil fuel. “And look at those pylons. Are you sure it’s safe?”

“This place hasn’t put out even a spark in…” Axel counted in his head. “…freaking– twenty years, I think. No danger of electrocution to be had.”

“Over here! Look at this!” Roxas was crouched down next to a hole torn in the fence, just big enough for someone to squeeze through. “We can get in through here.”

“If my hair gets snagged on that, I swear…” said Axel.

The three of them crawled through the hole, thankfully without any hair mishaps, and made their way to the main control building’s rusted front door. Axel tested the handle– it was unlocked– and pushed the doors open, allowing them to step into the chamber. Slants of light filtered through small windows, but apart from that, the hall was very dark.

“I wonder if we can see the turbines here,” said Roxas.

“Is… is there a light switch anywhere?” inquired Xion, glancing around in the dark.

“I’ll see if I can find one,” said Axel. He searched along the walls as the other two followed him closely, eventually coming to a switchboard. Experimentally flicking a few switches, some dim, flickering lights turned on.

“Well, what do you know…” Axel looked around in contemplation. “Looks like this place is still receiving some level of power.”

“At least we can see now,” said Roxas, starting off into the depths of the building. “C’mon, let’s find the turbines!”

They passed administrative offices, various control rooms, and machines none of them could make heads or tails of, before reaching a stairway downward marked “SERVICE TUNNELS”. The stairway ended in a door that was slightly ajar.

“What’s down there…?” Xion looked warily at the door.

“Exactly what the sign says, I’d guess,” said Axel. “Wanna check it out?”

Roxas and Xion nodded, Xion a little bit more slowly.

As they entered the tunnel, the door creaked open as they pushed it aside. A cool wind flowed through the tunnel with a faint yet eerie howl, punctuated by the occasional fizzling of the metal-caged lights that dotted the pipe-lined concrete walls in dim yellow. Roxas silently kept going, still urged on by the thrill of exploration, but kept himself behind Axel.

“How big is this place?” asked Xion, walking beside Roxas, after a while of wandering the twisting tunnels.

“I don’t know–”

“Hang on. Do you hear that?” Axel had stopped suddenly.

“Hear what?” Xion stopped and listened. So did Roxas.

A quiet echo from somewhere else… another tunnel, maybe… footsteps.

“S-someone else is here…” whispered Xion, half-frozen.

Roxas nudged Axel, his feeling of dread growing as he heard the footsteps coming closer. “Is it the drug dealers?”

“No clue… just stay behind me, okay?”

BANG. The door just next to them slammed open, knocking over a pair of trash cans in a cacophonous clatter of crashing metal. Roxas and Xion screamed, and Axel jumped to cover them.

“Well, well, well… I told you that lamer would be here.”

Out of the door stepped a rowdy-looking boy in a blue vest with a black hat bearing a kanji emblem. Backing him up was a silver-haired girl with a cold, blood-red stare, and a burly guy in an orange jersey who was almost as tall as Axel.

“Seifer!” exclaimed Roxas, his expression of fear rapidly turning to defiance. “What are you doing here?”

“You know these people?” asked a confused Xion.

Seifer smirked at them smugly. “No duh he does. I’m Seifer, he’s Raijin, and she’s Fujin. And together, we’re the Twilight Academy Disciplinary Committee.”

“Yeah! We enforce the rules, y’know?” interjected Raijin.

“ Our rules,” clarified Fujin.

“And one of those rules is against making a fool out of the leading Struggle champion with your bullshit Reversal move,” said Seifer.

“So we’re gonna make sure you can’t screw us up this year, y’know?!”

“Capital punishment,” explained Fujin in no uncertain terms.

Xion was backed against the wall, looking thoroughly terrified. Axel turned to face Seifer and his crew, standing between them and the smaller teens, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “So what I’m gathering here is that you’re salty over getting your asses kicked and now you wanna cheat.”

“Hey, Roxas is the cheater, yo! Ain’t nobody able to move like he does, y’know?” countered Raijin.

“And yet he still needs to hide behind the famous Cleanser in Flame when karma comes a-knockin’,” mocked Seifer.

“Says the guy who needs to bring two thugs to jump one kid.”

“There’s three of you, so it’s an even match, y’know!”

“I get the girl,” sneered Fujin.

Xion leaned over to Roxas. “I can’t fight, Roxas! Wh-what do I do?” she whispered.

“I won’t let them touch you,” said Roxas, now genuinely angry at their intent to beat up Xion too.

“Come on,” sighed Axel. “Don’t make me bash up a bunch of high school kids. This really won’t be fair.”

“Enough talk!” yelled Seifer. “Get him!”

Seifer and his friends lunged at Roxas. Roxas, three-on-one be damned, charged right back at Seifer, fists raised. Raijin’s huge fist whizzed over his head, narrowly missing as Axel uppercutted the large boy right in the jaw, sending him reeling.

Roxas and Seifer crashed into each other in a tangle of limbs, but Seifer rolled on top of Roxas and drove his fists down at the blond’s head. Covering his face with one arm, Roxas desperately grabbed at the pile of garbage that had fallen nearby. As luck would have it, his hand landed on a thick wooden stick, which he smashed over the side of Seifer’s head, wriggling free as Seifer groaned in pain.

“I’d tell you to pick on someone your own size, but I’m still– bigger– than you–” said Axel, punching Raijin in the ribs with each word. Raijin was tough, though, and stood firm, kicking Axel in the leg and only just missing the janitor’s genitals with his knee. Axel was forced backward, blocking Raijin’s returning barrage as he saw Fujin rushing for Xion out of the corner of his eye. He stuck out his leg, tripping Fujin, but earning a crushing right hook to the face for his momentary distraction from Raijin.

Xion rushed to the opposite wall of the tunnel, not sure where to run– Fujin was getting up fast, and Axel was preoccupied with Raijin. As the silver-haired girl approached her again, Xion clenched her fist and tried to swing at her, but Fujin grabbed her arm, swinging her around and slamming her into the wall. Fujin raised a fist to punch her, but suddenly flailed backwards amidst a flurry of screaming– Roxas had jumped on Fujin’s back and was repeatedly hammering his fists on her head.

“OW! SEIFER! GET HIM OFF!” she yelled, trying to fling Roxas off.

“I GOT HIM!” Seifer tackled Roxas full-force, dragging both him and Fujin to the ground in a pile of flailing fists.

Roxas was getting bashed from all sides, the blows blending into each other as he struck indiscriminately, unable to see who was Fujin and who was Seifer amidst the chaos.

“Axel!” Xion, now free, ran up behind Raijin, who had Axel backed against the wall and whose powerful punches were slowly wearing the redhead down. Being considerably smaller than Raijin, he didn’t notice her winding her foot back for a mighty charged-up kick until the moment of impact, as he jumped nearly a foot in the air clutching his wounded buttocks.

“Whoa– nice shot, Xion!” said Axel, rushing over to Roxas to extricate him from his opponents and help him to his feet. As Fujin and Raijin stood up, ready to attack again, Axel grabbed the lids of the two fallen trash cans. He spun them in his hands like a circus performer, clashing them together in flashes of sparks.

“Watch out. Badass over here,” said Fujin mockingly as she and Seifer lunged at Axel. 

“HYYYYAH!” With a wicked grin, Axel swung the lid with a metallic whoosh and bashed Seifer in the face. He fell back, stunned and visibly shocked, and Axel hurled the other lid like a frisbee, slamming it into Seifer’s forehead with a CLANG. Seifer crumpled to the floor.

“Holy… how did you do that?!” Roxas just stared in awe for a moment.

“…Objective!” exclaimed Fujin, directing her partner.

Raijin nodded, and both of them tried to tackle Roxas. 

Roxas, emboldened by Axel’s wild attack, ran straight at Fujin with a battle cry and a mighty swing. Fujin uppercutted him straight in the stomach as quick as a blink, but the impact couldn’t deter the path of his fist as it landed directly on her nose with a disgusting CRUNCH. They both collapsed to all fours, Roxas gasping for breath, Fujin bleeding profusely from her nose.

Axel flung his other trash-can lid at Raijin, bouncing it off his chin and catching it on the rebound to smack it right across his face before kicking him over. In a furious finisher, Axel slammed the lid edge-first one, two, three, four times on Raijin’s knees and elbows– not enough to break them, but enough that he would be painfully bruised for a while.

Seifer dragged himself to his feet, blood dripping down his face. 

“Pull back! Pull back! We’ll get ‘em next time!” 

He and his crew ran away as fast as they could, Raijin groaning and limping awkwardly and Fujin stifling her broken nose.

“Hey! Kids! You okay?” As soon as their foes were gone, Axel ran to check on Roxas and Xion.

“I… think I’m fine…” Roxas was still thoroughly flat on the floor, covered in bruises, but he turned his head and smiled at his friends nonetheless.

Xion just stood there for a while, face pale and breathing heavily… then promptly staggered over to one of the trash cans and lost her lunch.

“Easy, Xion… battle’s over.” Axel held Xion’s shoulder comfortingly. “You saved my ass back there, you know.”

“Really?” said Xion, extricating her head from the can.

“Yeah. And wrecked Raijin’s, but that’s another story.”

Despite the strained expression one gets from a mouthful of puke, Xion giggled. Roxas didn’t have the breath to laugh, but he did so in spirit.

“I think I know just the thing to wash that taste out,” said Axel. “To Sunset Terrace, gang!”

---

By the time the three of them had returned from the power plant, dusk was already approaching. Roxas and Axel showed Xion the way up to the top of the clock tower, and they sat on the edge, their legs hanging over the side, to enjoy some well-earned treats.

“So this is the ‘icing on the cake’?”

“Mhm.”

“But it’s ice cream.”

“Yep.”

“And… the cake is us getting beat up?” Xion tilted her head in confusion.

“That doesn’t usually happen,” Roxas laughed.

“More like us beating them, besides,” added Axel.

“What is it with those three, anyway?” asked Xion after another bite of ice cream. “They called themselves… the Twilight Academy Disciplinary Committee?”

“Fancy private school,” explained Roxas. “They’re on Sephiroth’s fencing team– our team’s biggest rivals.”

“Wow… is everyone on their team like them?”

“Nah, they’re the only real jerks there,” said Roxas. 

“That’s good. I’ve never been a fighter, so this is a lot to take in at once.” Xion looked at Roxas and smiled shyly. “Thanks again for saving me…”

“You’re welcome.” A feeling of pride rose in Roxas’s heart.

Axel snickered. “So, how do you like the sunset, Xion?”

“It’s beautiful! And you guys come here all the time?”

“Whenever I have the evening free, yep,” said Axel. “There’s really no better place to watch it than up here on this clock tower.”

“Don’t you ever worry about falling?” Xion peered over the edge.

“Nah. I’ve been up here long enough that I can keep myself safe.”

“Wait, Axel cares about safety?” Roxas laughed, and the others soon joined in.

“Next time you come here… I wanna come with you again,” said Xion. “I really like you guys.”

“Sounds good to me. Bunch of nobodies without many other places to go should stick together.” Axel smiled.

“Yeah!” said Roxas eagerly. “Plus we’ve fought together– we’ve kinda got to.”

When they finally climbed down from the clock tower at the evening’s end, all three of them were looking forward to what future adventures were sure to come– Roxas especially.

Chapter 7: Hand To Hand

Notes:

This is where it finally gets explicit, dear friends. About time, huh?

Several weeks went by with Sora not thinking about his audition at all. In fact, the more pressing concern on his mind was his continued failure to match Riku in swordsmanship– their score was 21 to 6 in Riku’s favor, and every time, Riku would end with a smug smirk that sent Sora’s blood pressure through the roof. 

But one afternoon as October had rolled around and the leaves were turning orange, Sora was passing by the auditorium on his way to lunch and noticed a list pinned to the door. The cast list! He examined it– Selphie as Belle (nice; I know her), Wakka as Gaston (he’s got the beef for it, I guess), and…

His stomach immediately plummeted, and he sprinted down the hall to the cafeteria where his friends were.

“HAYNER! PENCE! OLETTE!”

“Whaaat?!” Hayner had nearly been ejected from his seat by Sora’s sudden panicked entrance, and the other two turned to him anxiously.

“Larxene cast me as the Beast! What am I gonna do?!”

“WHAT?!”

“You guys dared me to audition for him! I didn’t think she’d actually pick me!”

“Either she’s taken one too many electroshocks to the brain or she’s got it in for you, Sora!” said Hayner.

“Hey, don’t be mean!” said Pence. “His Beast voice was great, remember?”

“Yeah, but that was just me messing around!” insisted Sora. “If I have to do that on stage… ” He sighed, his head sinking. “I mean, just look at me. Do you really think I have the stage presence for it?”

The three were momentarily silent. Hayner squinted at Sora, and Olette tilted her head to the side.

“I… guess we’ll see?” said Pence hesitantly.

Sora sighed, his heart inverting with an existential dread. They’d see when the first rehearsal rolled around, maybe…

---

The dread lingered with Sora all day, and by the end of last period, he was quite through– he had to blow off this stress somehow. He didn’t have fencing today, though… He was walking out the front door and considering what he could possibly do when Riku passed by.

“Riku!” Sora half-shouted, not really aware of his volume.

Riku jumped ever so slightly. “What?”

Sora took a half-second to arrange the words in his head properly. “Let’s practice fighting at my place!”

“Can’t it wait till next fencing practice? I got a lot of stuff I need to do tonight…” Riku sighed and thought for a moment. “…I might be able to stop by when I’m finished.”

“Great! Don’t forget, okay! I gotta blow off some steam after today…”

“Why? What happened?” Riku raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll, uh…” Sora stared at the ground, realizing he may have risked letting slip too much. “I’ll tell you some other time.”

“If you say so…” Riku was looking at Sora like he had just told him his family was dying. Sora couldn’t exactly reassure him, though, without revealing that he was in theater, and surely Riku would think that was uncool or not hardcore enough or something. Riku turned and left, and Sora headed home.

---

Sora’s heart leapt when he heard the knock at the door, just as he was finishing his own homework. He ran out to the front hall and opened the door to let Riku in.

“Hey, uh– sorry I took so long,” said Riku, stepping into the doorway only to be dashed past by the excited Sora.

“C’mon! Let’s go to the backyard.”

Riku followed him with a chuckle. Sora’s backyard was host to a lovely garden lawn that provided plenty of room for outdoor activities before hitting a steep slope that led down to a creek running behind the row of houses.

“So, Sora, do you have your sword?” asked Riku as he got into position.

“I thought we couldn’t take the swords home. Do you have one? Or two?” asked Sora hopefully. He scratched a little line in the dirt for the two to line up.

“Nope.”

“Well… we’ll have to find something else we can use!” Sora did have something he could use as a weapon– but showing it to people might not be a good idea, he thought. Then again, he and Riku were friends, right? Best friends, even. He trusted Riku, and it wasn’t like anyone else was there…

“I do have an idea… I think.”

“Hmm… Well, so do I.” 

They stared into each other’s eyes as they lined up, both still without any sort of weapon in their hands, each one clearly expecting the other to pull out some wild trick. The seconds lengthened, the tense stillness becoming interminable–

Then Sora charged.

Riku charged to meet him.

CLAAAAAAANG

Sora’s eyes had closed in anticipation of the collision as he summoned his key-sword and swung it at Riku, but the ringing of metal on metal that resounded across the yard was not what he expected. He opened his eyes to see Riku looking as shocked as he was and–

“…You have one too?!”

The two spoke at once, for indeed, Riku was also carrying his own more sinister key-sword, the ornate blade’s edge grinding against the blunt shaft of Sora’s key as he tried to force it downward. All thoughts of hiding his secret ability left Sora’s mind as he pushed off and jumped back.

“Hyaaahh!” He returned at once with a rushing stab– he had never used this weapon in an actual fight, but the move came remarkably naturally to him. Anticipating Riku’s parry, he moved with the blade and swung in the same direction, bashing Riku in the shoulder.

“Gah! You could smash someone’s brains out with that!” grunted Riku as he recovered his stance and slashed at Sora. “How did you get it? I thought I was the only one who could do this!”

“So did I! I always had–” Sora jumped back just in time to avoid his leg being cleaved, but not fast enough to spare his pants from being ripped by the blade. He didn’t have time to talk in the midst of this! Riku was fighting differently– maybe it was that their new weapons were balanced much more like Struggle bats than sabers, or the fact that Sora just felt more confident with the giant key in his hand; either way, Riku’s movements seemed less certain and more aggressive than usual, and Sora felt there was a distinct possibility of being chopped to bits by his friend here. He could have pulled back, but something in him drove him forward, unwilling to lose, and he suspected Riku felt the same. Sora intensified his attack in turn, battering Riku’s defenses and searching for an opening. Every two-handed slam he threw forced Riku to back up another step and carefully deflect the swing at an angle with his blade lest his arm get jarred in a direct block, and Sora’s heart pounded in hopeful anticipation of a quick and overwhelming victory– he had never had the edge up on Riku like this before! 

His moment of thrill was quickly cut short, though, when Riku vaulted up onto a wheelbarrow sitting by the garden wall and leaped past Sora. With one quick spinning slash, Sora was pinned against the wall and had to quickly brace the shaft of his key with both hands to deflect the incoming flurry of slashes. With Riku clearly starting to get used to Sora’s new technique, whipping his dark blade in great arcs with one hand as if it weighed nothing, Sora could see Riku’s signature combat smirk returning. No way. Not this time.  

Breaking the hyper-focused silence with a furious yell, Sora dropped his guard and lunged at Riku, who effortlessly stepped aside and swung at Sora’s back. At the last second, though, Sora dove to the ground and kicked at Riku’s legs on the follow-through. Riku, having leaned out for his attack, fell promptly to the ground, and got up just in time to see Sora drop his key and full-on charge-tackle him. The dark blade was sent flying from his hand as the two boys crashed to the grass and rolled down the hill at the back of the yard. Everything around Sora was a blur of whirling color and scraping ground, and then there was Riku, whom he held onto as hard as possible, still determined to make him tap out.

With a great bone-rattling thud, they crashed to a stop in the muddy bank of the creek, both covered in grass, leaves, and dirt. Sora realized he was still on top of Riku, but barely had the energy to pin him– he hadn’t realized he had overexerted himself so badly until the adrenaline had left his system. As vertigo set in, he flopped his spinning head onto Riku’s chest. Riku’s heart was pounding like a motor in Sora’s ear. No wonder Riku didn’t seem intent on getting Sora off him; he seemed just as exhausted as Sora was. He lay there a while amidst the trickle of the creek and the soft rising and falling of Riku’s chest until his own breath returned to him.

“So…” sighed Riku. “Who won?” 

“I dunno,” said Sora. “If you can get me off of you, it’s yours…”

“Nah… we can just chalk this one up for you,” Riku laughed weakly. “Though I would if I weren’t so freaking beat, you lightweight.”

Riku’s remark earned him a punch in the shoulder from Sora, and they both laughed. At this point, though, Sora was very aware that he was in a greater degree of contact with his friend than he had ever been before, and the flush in his cheeks was no longer merely from exhaustion.

“So, uh, we should probably get out of the creek, huh?” Sora interjected, nervously hoping they could do so before he got excited enough for Riku to notice.

Riku nodded, and they began to painstakingly haul themselves out of the mud, one tired limb at a time.

“But yeah… what’s the deal with your sword?” Sora asked Riku as they walked back up the hill.

“I’ve been able to summon it for a long time. I just clench my hand and will it and it appears.” Riku demonstrated, causing the sword to appear in a swirl of dark energy. “I’ve been calling it a Keyblade– though yours actually looks more like a key.”

“Can yours unlock doors too?” asked Sora.

“Yeah. It unlocks pretty much anything. I’ve used it for all kinds of things.”

“I realized I had mine when I got locked out of the house one night when I was younger. I just wished I had a key and my Keyblade appeared. I know it’s, uh, not really as epic of a story as you’d expect for something like this… but I’ve been keeping it secret up till now.”

“Yeah, so have I. I don’t exactly wanna be taken in as a government test subject, especially with–” Riku quickly became quiet.

“With what?”

“With, uh… you know, my family and all. They’d probably take it badly.” He stared down and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh, yeah, I can imagine…” Sora was sure Riku was still hiding something, though. Then again, most of Riku was mysterious– the whole way he presented himself, really.

“Anyway. You seemed a lot more confident with that thing than with your saber…”

“Yeah. I dunno why; it just feels… natural. Like I was always meant to wield it.”

“Weird… I guess it’s not much weirder than the fact that it exists, though.” As they returned to the front yard, Riku looked at Sora suddenly and cleared his throat. “You know, uh– we should do this more.”

“Hm?” 

“Yeah. We’re on more even footing with Keyblades than we are with sabers. And who says we only have to keep score with our school-sanctioned fights?”

“Sure!” said Sora, not questioning why Riku would want to sacrifice his experience advantage in saber. “You can come here whenever you want! Well– if my mom’s okay with it. Which she probably will be usually. …You okay, Riku?” Sora had noticed Riku was still red in the face.

“I’m fine. Just– still a little tired, that’s all. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay!” 

Riku ran off, and Sora was left alone with his thoughts once more. Realizing he was covered in mud and leaves from their fall down the hill, Sora hurried back into the house and to the bathroom. 

He turned on the shower water and began stripping off his crusty clothes, first his shirt, then his pants and underwear.

Dang it…

Yep, it was confirmed: he was still furiously hard. And the warm steam filling the room was not helping matters, nor was the water as he stepped into the bathtub. His legs still tired from the fight, he sat down in the tub and let the water sprinkle over him. His hand absentmindedly drifted to his erection as his thoughts wandered, his thoughts still mostly consisting of Riku. He was on top of Riku earlier, touching him; he mentally kicked himself for being too caught up in battle to really register. He could easily have slipped a hand under Riku’s shirt, or leaned in just a bit closer to his face–

What am I doing? This was weird, Sora thought– what would Riku think if he knew this was how his best friend was thinking about him? He somehow felt even more dirty now than before, yet he could not push the thoughts of what could have been from his mind; if only Riku knew. Did it matter? He loved his friend; he really loved him as it was– why was this any different from how he already thought of him? Eyes closed, Sora’s imagination continued to run wild– he was stroking and grasping and clawing at Riku’s body, uncaring of the dirt, and Riku was doing the same in turn, reaching down to his waist, his thighs– he imagined it was Riku’s hand steadily pumping him instead of his own. Oh. Oh god.  

“Riku… Riku–” he whispered through clenched teeth, bringing himself closer and closer to climax. Every muscle in his body snapped tense and his breath locked in his throat as a wave of pleasure radiated through him from his dick, a sparkling burst of semen splashing onto his chest as he tried his hardest not to cry out. He finally stopped and slumped back into the water, allowing himself to breathe a great sigh. God, he was absolutely hopeless.

As he washed himself off, his lust-clouded mind finally beginning to clear, the endorphin crash started to set in… and he remembered he had theater rehearsal tomorrow.

I’m doomed.

Chapter 8: Friends In My Heart

Notes:

Kind of a short chapter this time, but it's SOMETHING after three years... It's a commitment to continuing this.

Another school day was over, and Sora was finally due in the auditorium once again. His dread since yesterday had abated slightly, but whenever he actually got excited, he would remember who he was cast as and the dread would start to resurface. Once again, he opened the door nervously, but was relieved to see his fellow cast members there as he walked up to the stage, which was now much less dark and imposing than last time.

“Hey, Sora!” Ventus waved at him. “Our honorary Beast is here, huh?”

“Yeah…” Sora forced a nervous grin. “I didn’t think you’d be here, by the way! Who’d you get?”

“Lumiere! Turns out my parkour skills translate pretty well to a dance-heavy role like this. I was kinda worried I wouldn’t make the cut, though, especially with how much of a killer Professor Larxene is…”

“Who’s a killer?”

Sora and Ventus spun around– Larxene was standing right behind them, in the shadow of one of the curtains.

“Oh, uh–” Sora choked. “Just someone else.”

Larxene pouted. “Aww. I would have considered that a wonderful compliment.”

Ventus visibly released a breath as Larxene stepped up to the front of the stage giggling.

“All right, cast! Welcome to our first rehearsal of Beauty And The Beast,” she said as everyone got into a loose semicircle formation around her. “I gotta say, choosing a cast from all the wonderful talent that signed up was very hard… but I pulled through. Now, if you were in a professional environment, you’d already know your lines and we could just get right down to rehearsal, but I can’t exactly expect that from you… so we’re going to start with a readthrough of the script. Demyx should be leading our friends in the pit orchestra through pretty much the same process right about now… We’ll be able to practice along with them in a few weeks if all goes well. In the meantime, get out your scripts.”

The rustle of paper filled the hall. Sora had already read through at least some of the script, and more importantly, he had seen the original movie so many times that the lines were burned into his brain.

“Starting with Belle. Action!”

As they began, Sora waited– it would be a while before Beast showed up– and his thoughts wandered. His interaction with Riku from yesterday continued to frustrate him. If only there was someone he could talk to… Hayner was out of the question; he’d either make fun of him or blow his secret. Not Pence or Olette either…

“…Hey. Ven?” he whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Can we talk after rehearsal?”

Ventus raised an eyebrow. “Sure. Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing serious, just… a thing.”

“All right. Also, I think your line is coming up.”

“Huh?!”

“Who are you?!” said the boy playing Maurice. Sora scrambled to flip to the right page.

“The mastle of this cast– uh, I mean–”

A few snickers rose from the circle. Larxene’s grin could have fractured a continent.

“The master of this castle,” read Sora, in his normal voice. “What are you staring at? So… you’ve come to STARE at the BEAST, have you?!”

The amused smirks from around the circle did not fade, to Sora’s mild shame. He could have used his Beast voice, but although doing it for brief periods was fine, he worried that if he wasted it on the first set of rehearsals, he would damage his voice. For now, he truly was the least intimidating Beast any Beauty had ever seen.

---

“So, what did you wanna talk about?” asked Ventus after the readthrough.

“Well… you can keep a secret, right?” said Sora.

“Of course.”

Sora took a deep breath. “Okay… you know my friend Riku, right?”

“Edgy guy with the silver hair? Yeah.”

“I like him. Like– I’m in love with him. Or, at least I think he’s super super hot.”

Ventus’s eyes widened. “Oh… dang. Have you told him yet?”

“What do you think? Of course not! He’s my best friend. And I’m lucky to even have him as a friend– there’s no way someone like him feels the same way about me. If I told him, I’d ruin everything.”

“Okay…” Ventus thought for a minute. “I… can’t say I know what you should do. I mean, I don’t know how it is between guys,” he laughed. “But I do know two people who know what it’s like to go from friends to lovers. You could ask them.”

“Your parents, right?”

“Yep. I’ve got some stuff I need to do after this, so you can just stop at my place if you wanna talk to them. In the meantime, your secret is safe with me.”

Sora nodded. “Thanks.”

“Also!” Ventus called after Sora as he left. “I wanna see you on the parkour course again tomorrow! I’ll show you some of my tricks.”

---

Sora headed off to Ventus’s house after he left. He knew the way, having hung out with Ventus there a fair few times prior.

“Who is it?” came a voice when he knocked on the door.

“It’s Sora! Roxas and Ven’s friend from school.”

“Oh! Hang on a sec…”

The door opened to reveal the welcoming faces of Terra and Aqua.

“What brings you here?” said Terra. “If you’re looking for your friends, Ven’s off on a run and Roxas is probably up at Sunset Terrace again…”

“Nah. I was just wondering if I could talk to you about, uh, something important,” said Sora. “Is that okay?”

“Of course! We have plenty of time,” said Aqua. “Feel free to come in.”

“Thanks.” Sora went in and sat on the couch. 

“So, what’s troubling you?” asked Terra.

Sora swallowed, thinking of how to ask. Probably best to keep it impersonal… and ambiguous. 

“What advice would you give to someone who’s in love with their best friend?”

Terra laughed. “Well, you definitely asked the right people, that’s for sure…”

“Well, Terra and I met in college,” said Aqua. “We couldn’t have been less alike– or less like our current selves, quite frankly.” She grinned. “Terra used to be the biggest square you’d ever see.”

“Hey, big talk coming from the perpetually-drunk party girl!” laughed Terra.

“You loved that drunk party girl, though, didn’t you?” teased Aqua.

Terra nodded, still smiling. “You definitely brought me out of my shell in a lot of ways, that’s for sure…”

“And Terra managed to get me more, well… on track with my life,” Aqua said, turning back to Sora. “And eventually, we just realized that we had benefited each other’s lives so much that we couldn’t possibly leave each other.”

“Who told the other first?” asked Sora.

“I did,” said Terra. “I was nervous, but I figured someone had to.”

“Were you worried it might mess up your friendship?”

“Maybe a little, but we were at a point where I didn’t feel like I had to worry that much. And if you don’t feel like you’re at that level of comfort… give it time. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Sora slowly nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Anything else you’d like to ask?”

“…Nah, I think I’m good. Thanks, though!”

“See you later, then. Don’t be a stranger,” said Aqua.

As Sora left, he thought about what Terra and Aqua had told him. They made it sound so easy. So why was he such a mess? …Well, it was obvious when he thought about it for more than five seconds. Riku was still on a completely different level compared to him– or at least Sora saw it that way. Their respective fencing scores spoke to that.

I’ll tell him once I’m on equal footing with him… once I can beat his score.