Me: Yay! A Soriku fic! My first! Applaud! XD

S.C.: Well, actually, because this sucks so much maybe you should just cough politely—

Me: Shut it! Anyway, guys, want to guess how long ago it was that I made this? Anyyyybodyyyyyyy?

S.C.: Urgh. Only you would be proud of that—

Me: AUGUST! Bwahahahahahaha!!

S.C.: You are such a procrastinator.

Me: Yes, and you’ve been spending too much time with Kaito.

S.C.: Huh? Why?
Me: ’Cause you sound like ol’ Papa Bear, that’s why! You sound responsible!

S.C.: Oh… Oh dearest kami…. O.o

Kaito: WHO’S ‘PAPA BEAR’?

Me: Eheh… Um…

S.C.: Responsible… O.o

Me: (OK, he’s dead to the world anyway. He won’t notice if Kaito kills him, right?) S.C. did it!Kaito: … -throws a shoe at S.C.-

S.C.: Ow! What the—eh? Kaito…? Why do you look mur…derous...?

Kaito: I will kill you.

S.C.: …Dai, consider yourself dog meat when I get away from Kaito.

Me: Yeah, yeah. You run faster than me anyway! Good luck!

Yet again Sora wondered how he’d gotten himself into this situation.

He was sitting on a stool in a kitchen he had only been in a couple of times, seeing as it wasn’t his kitchen. It belonged to his next door neighbors; the Sasuhara’s. More specifically, he was in here with the Sasuhara’s son, Riku, because he couldn’t find the instant popcorn. Which you just had to have to watch a bunch of movies.

But how Sora had gotten into this situation? Well, that had nothing to do with popcorn. At least… not in a way Sora could figure out.

It had started last Friday when Sora had met his girlfriend for three months after school, like always. His girlfriend, Kairi Ichijura, had been acting strangely all day, and he was anxious to talk to her. Sora had no practical experience in ‘love’; but he expected that what he felt for Kairi was as close as it got. She was nice, sweet, smart, energetic, and even had a good sense of humor—to him she seemed perfect. When they held hands he was always smiling, (although when was Sora not?) when he hugged her she was soft and warm, and kissing her was nice. The world never spun, he never felt weird or anxious around her, and his heart never did anything strange… But Sora didn’t mind. Personally, he thought the people who had that sort of thing happen to them were in the very first stages of mono. Or something.

Which is why he was crushed when she told him she wanted to break up. She called him inattentive, clueless, and annoying, and glared at an entirely bewildered Sora for five straight minutes before she burst into tears. Sora (still very confused) had held her until she stopped crying, and Kairi had slowly and painstakingly explained that she didn’t feel anything she was supposed to feel with Sora. Yes she loved him, but like a brother, and she wanted to stay just friends forever. She looked up at him with a tear streaked face, and begged him not to hate her. Which of course Sora didn’t. She just hugged her and assured her it was all fine. Privately he wondered why she wanted to catch mono so much, but figured that it was her business.

So after waiting the respectable week after a break-up, Sora had wanted to find another girlfriend. It was undeniably nice to have someone willing to hold hands with you and hang out a lot and… Who was he kidding? He could do all that with Kairi anyway! Honestly, Sora was in no kind of rush to get another girlfriend. And he would have been perfectly fine to uphold his dateless status, had Riku not interfered.

Riku Sasuhara. He used to be Sora’s best friend, before he fell into the popular crowd. They had done all kinds of things together, sometimes with either Kairi or Roxas tagging along. Then, in high school a mountain of girls took an interest in Riku and dragged him into Popularsville with them. Riku had more or less ditched Sora, who had never quite forgiven him. Now he was an unyieldingly smug jerk and the school’s ‘number one hottie’. And the very day after Sora and Kairi’s breakup, they had passed each other in the hall.

“I heard you broke up with Kairi,” Riku began nonchalantly, he and his friends falling into step with Sora, who internally groaned. “Is that just a rumor?”

“No. She broke up with me.” Sora turned sharply on a corner, fully aware that Riku’s class was in the opposite direction. Riku followed him anyway.

“I thought so. Any girl who’d go near you has to be confused.” He nodded smugly as Sora ground his teeth. “Glad she came to her senses… Kairi’s pretty cool.”

Sora spun around, glaring at Riku. “There’s nothing wrong with Kairi and you… You stay away from her!” Riku and his posse just laughed, and Riku smiled coldly again.

“What, you want to get back together with her?” He asked, distain rolling off his tone.

“No.” Sora turned to leave, but one of Riku’s friends blocked his path. He aimed another glare at Riku. “Unlike you, I don’t make friends with people in order to sleep with them.” Riku didn’t look put off.

“But that’s just because you can’t get a girl.” Riku nodded, pleased with this theory. “You’re short, clueless, and annoying. Plus, you look more like a girl than a guy.”

“Stuff it.” Sora leaned against a wall seeing that Riku’s friends wouldn’t let him escape. “And I could get a girlfriend if I wanted one.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Riku scoffed, before looking thoughtful. “Actually I would. How about this; you get a girlfriend before this month is up, and we won’t bother you anymore. If not, you have to be our personal slave for the next month.” He grinned and looked around at his equally exited friends. “Is everyone good with that?”

“Well I’m not!” Sora was still glaring at his former friend, wishing that something large and heavy would fall on him. “I’m not taking your stupid bet.”

“That’s too bad…” Riku leaned against the wall to whisper conspiratorially in Sora’s ear. “But people are gonna be disappointed if you don’t do it… They might get mad at you.”

And that was how Sora ended up looking for a new girlfriend.

It was a pretty fruitless attempt. Sora hated to admit it, but Riku was right. While he had lots of friends, and some of them were girls, none of them seemed interested in him as anything more. Plus Sora himself couldn’t ever put his whole heart into it. None of the girls he could meet seemed worth that kind of effort… Honestly, Kairi was the only girl he’d ever found himself really interested in. Stupid bet. Stupid Riku. Stupid mono obsession.

So one day after school Sora had been holed up in his room to scour the school yearbook for a prospective date and enjoying a very bad mood, when the phone rang. Sora thought the caller ID looked vaguely familiar, so he picked the phone up and cradled it to his ear as he continued to rifle through the yearbook. “Hello?”

“Is this the Hikari residence?”

Sora nearly hung up then and there, but some tiny voice in the back of his head told him to wait. “Riku?” Sora’s incredulous voice quickly filled with venom. “Why are you calling?”

“Look Sora, I know I was kind of a jerk before,” Riku admitted, ignoring Sora’s question. “I was in a bad mood, so sorry for taking it out on you. But if you back out now, the guys will give you trouble.”

“So you called to tell me that?” Sora glared into the receiver, two parts annoyed and one part confused. “News flash, Riku! I already know. If that’s all you called to tell me, I’m hanging up.” There was silence on the other end for a moment, which Sora used to scan over a few more pages. Nothing. Drat.

“OK, you’re mad. I get it.” Dang right I am, Sora growled internally. “I probably deserve it.”

What’s this probably? Sora wondered. Still, he didn’t say a word and left Riku hanging in stony silence.

“Fine. I definitely deserve it.”

Sora lost patience here and flung the yearbook back onto the bedspread. “Riku, get to the point or I’m hanging up. I really am busy here.”

“What, looking for girls?”

Sora hung up.

A few seconds later the phone rang again. Sora picked it up with an all-suffering expression. “Hello?”

“Sora.” Riku again. Surprise, surprise. “You loser. I can help you out.”

“With what?” Sora asked, curiosity getting the better of him. “Homework? The guys getting onto me? Being a loser?”

“No. Girls.” Sora lost the ability to speak and stared blankly at the phone. Seeing as Sora wasn’t going to answer, Riku went on. “I was a jerk to make you take that bet, but if you back out now, the guys will give you even more grief than usual. So I’ll help you win instead. Think about it Sora, who would know better than me? I can tell you who’s available, who’s not, even who would be into you. You won’t owe me anything, I swear.” There was another pause, and Sora blinked, trying to muster a reply. “So, uh, what do you think?”

“What do I think?” Sora repeated, managing to speak again. “I think you’re a smug, arrogant moron with anger management issues.” He found himself smiling as he said that, imagining Riku’s self satisfied expression crumbling away.

“Is that really necessary?” Good. Riku sounded irritated now. “I was trying to be nice, you know.”

“I know.” Sora was grinning now, and swinging his legs over the sides of his bed, dark mood completely gone. “And I accept. So now what?”

“Well, it’s Friday.” Riku got over his annoyance quickly enough. Sora glanced up at the battered calendar that adorned his wall. So it was. “Can you come over to my place? We can go through the stuff there.”

“Yeah, OK.” Sora laughed. “It’s actually funny you’d say that, because my mom’s wanted to get me out of the house for today. She’ll actually appreciate this.”

“Well…” The line was awkwardly silent for a moment. “That’s good. So, just show up whenever, OK?”

“Be right there.” Sora hung up then and set to changing, still smiling. He hadn’t bothered to change out of his school clothes, which were pretty much rank from PE, but suddenly it seemed like a good idea to do so. He told his mom where he was off to, grabbed a mouthful of chips from the bag on the counter (no good working on an empty stomach) and snatched his coat off of the rack before he left. Sora rode his bike to Riku’s house, feeling unnaturally exited for someone visiting his archrival. Shouldn’t he hate Riku? Especially after all that the snowy haired boy had put him through?

But that didn’t change the fact that Riku had been his best friend.

Sora left his bike leaning against the side of Riku’s house and walked up to the porch where he rang the doorbell. He fidgeted, feeling out of place, extremely nostalgic, and cold. The door swung open soon enough, revealing Riku. Sora blinked. Riku never used to answer the door… Mrs. Sasuhara had always done that before. Riku gave Sora a slightly awkward smile, and Sora managed a little wave.

“Mom and Dad are out today,” Riku explained as he ushered Sora inside to the land of heaters. It was cold out. Sora shivered for a moment, rubbing his arms before he realized what Riku said.

“Oh? Sorry if this is a bad time.” He shivered again and hugged his jacket to himself. “I can go home, if you want. You probably don’t want me to come over when everyone’s out.” Riku shook his head before Sora could launch into an onslaught of questions.

“No, we’re not alone. Namine and Sephiroth are home.” He seemed to notice Sora was cold and started walking towards one of the warmer rooms, Sora following him closely. “We can still do pretty much whatever we want; you know Sephiroth. He never comes out of his office. And it’s not like Namine’s a troublemaker. If she bugs you too much, just tell her to go away.”

“N-no.” Sora’s head spun a little from Riku’s rapid speech. “Uh, no, Namine’s fine.” He had a feeling there was something he was supposed to ask, but he couldn’t remember it. How odd. Suddenly he felt nervous, dizzy, and too hot despite the cold. Was he coming down with something?

“You biked here didn’t you?” Sora snapped back to the real world to see Riku eyeing him appraisingly. “Honestly, it’s the middle of December. You’re shaking like a leaf.” Riku walked over to a cabinet and rummaged in it for a moment before he produced a plastic packet. Sora watched dazedly as Riku poured the brown powder into two mugs and then started heating some water. “Hot chocolate,” Riku stated once he noticed Sora staring. He smiled too, which made Sora feel dizzier still. “We’ve got tons.”

Having heated the water enough Riku poured it into the mugs, and mixed the contents. Sora still felt strange. Riku was his worst enemy right? Why did he care if Sora caught a cold and died? Why was he making Sora hot chocolate? When had Riku learned to cook?

“Here.” Riku held out the red mug, keeping the blue one for himself. He was still smiling slightly, and this time Sora responded with a grin of his own. Sora took the mug and his smile widened at the warmth of the mug on his fingers. Riku noticed and his mouth twitched like he was going to laugh. But he didn’t.

“Do you have any marshmallows?” Sora looked up at Riku hopefully, and this time the taller boy did laugh. He turned back to the cabinet and this time produced a bag of marshmallows. He put two in each mug, and tried to hand Sora’s back to him. Sora gave him The Look.

The Look was something that had been invented when Sora and Riku were still friends. It consisted of Bambi eyes, a slight but precise tilt of the head, and the almost imperceptible trembling of the lower lip. Sora had learned early on that this look could guarantee Riku would do anything he wanted. Riku had learned early on that when faced with The Look, he crumbled like a cookie.

“Sora…” Riku scowled at his former friend, still trying to push the mug back into his hands. “No. That’s plenty. You’ll get fat.”

The Look did not waver.

“Oh fine!” Had Riku’s hands not been full, he would have thrown them into the air. Instead he turned back to the marshmallow bag and dropped two more into the red mug. He held it out to Sora, still scowling, although there was real laughter behind it. “Better?”

“Much!” Releasing Riku from The Look, Sora took the mug and took a long, happy slurp of the rich warm liquid. He couldn’t believe this stuff was instant—when did instant hot chocolate get so good? He grinned up at Riku, who grinned back. For a moment both were completely content to just lean against the kitchen counter sipping hot chocolate, just like they had done for many winters before. Sora began to feel drowsy. The chocolate was hot and sweet, the room was warm and toasty, and he could hear Riku breathing next to him… He wondered why he felt so happy.

“Riku?” He mumbled through a mouthful of marshmallow. Riku made a grunting noise to let Sora know he was paying attention. “Shouldn’t we get to work? I mean, if I stay still for much longer, I’m going to end up asleep…” Riku laughed again, and finished off the last of his hot chocolate.

“OK, Sora.” Leading the way, Riku left the kitchen and tromped up the stairs to his room. As Riku attempted to unlock his door (he was as paranoid as ever, Sora noted) a door on the opposite end of the hallway opened, and another silver haired head poked out.

“Riku?” It inquired, sounding a little annoyed.

“Nothing Sephiroth.” Riku scowled at his brother, before returning to his troubles with the lock, which kept clacking very loudly and doing nothing. “We’re just going to my room.”

“Well keep it down.” The door to Sephiroth’s study swung shut with that and Riku stuck out his tongue at the door.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” The lock clinked and Riku pushed the door open, mouthing ‘yes!’ Sora walked in first, clutching his mug of hot chocolate, and Riku followed. Sora looked around, marveling over how much and how little it changed. There were mementos Sora recalled from the days they had played up here; seashells, drawings from Namine, and pillows, but also things he didn’t recognize, such as the fact that it seemed as though Riku’s entire wardrobe had been visited by a can of black spray paint. As Sora gawked, Riku plopped down and pulled out a yearbook. He looked pointedly at Sora until the brunette got the message and sat next to him. Sora leaned halfway over Riku’s shoulder to get a better look at the yearbook. Surprisingly, Riku didn’t seem to mind.

“OK, first we’re going to look through all of the possible choices, and pick out a few who might work. Is that alright with you?” Sora shrugged noncommittally, and sipped more hot chocolate. Riku nodded. “OK. You suggest someone first.”

“Um…” Sora scanned the first page of the yearbook. “How about… Larxene? She’s blonde, hot, and she’s in my math class… I think.” He glanced up at Riku, to find that he was already shaking his head.

“No way. She’d eat you alive. Wait a few years before you even think about dating her.”

“Why?” Sora asked, feeling out of the loop.

“She’s pure evil. She’d sell her mother’s soul if it meant getting what she wanted.” Riku said it so matter-of-factly, Sora thought it best not to ask more.

“OK…” Sora flicked through some pages. “Olette? She’s nice, she’s into video games, and I already know her.”

“Nuh-uh.” Riku looked over a few pages on his own. “Olette’s cool and all, but she’s got this huge crush on Roxas from homeroom. Anyone who interferes will face her wrath. Plus, she’s not exactly the sharpest crayon in the box.”

“Riku!” Sora reprimanded, frowning at his former friend critically. “That’s not very nice.”

“No, but it’s true. I’d thought there was no such thing as a stupid question… That was before history class with her. Plus she’s one of those ‘does this dress make me look fat?’ types. I’m betting you’re not into that.”

Sora shuddered, recalling the one time he’d gone shopping with Kairi and her friends. “Not in the slightest. How about Selphie? She’s one of Kairi’s friends. I bet if I asked Kairi would help me out.”

“Selphie is greedier than anyone I’ve ever met.” Sora looked up at Riku, disbelieving.

“You’re kidding me! Selphie’s nuts, but…”

“Nope. If you have anything she wants, she’ll unload one-hundred and ten pound of pure pain on you. If she doesn’t have it, she wants it. If she does, she wants it anyway. I’ve never met anyone so catty—I have no clue why she isn’t at Kairi’s throat all the time. She’ll probably get jealous of your shampoo and steal it all.”

“OK.” Sora scanned through the yearbook once more. Were all the girls at his school wacko? “Paine? She has the whole goth queen persona going…”

“The snobby rich girl? Sora, she’s a witch. Starting with a ‘b’.”

“Rikku? Ha, the girl with your name—“

“Slut. And taken anyway, for the moment. I dunno, if you want to wait it out, you can, she’ll probably be on the move in the next three days.”

“I’ll pass, thank you. Tifa?”

“Drama queen and gossiper. Everyone will know everything about you in about five minute’s time of dating her.”

Sora looked up from the book, suspicious. “Are you messing with me? You make it sound like all the girls at our school are evil incarnate! There’s no way they’re all bad… There has to besomeone.”

“I’m looking, I’m looking.” Riku skipped through the pages, looking stumped. “Hm. That’s disconcerting. OK, Sora. We’ll skip this bit for now, and come back to it later. I’m sure we can find someone you can date. The next thing we need to worry about is your look.” Sora wondered what that meant and opened his mouth to ask as Riku looked him up and down. What’s wrong with how I look? He wondered.

“Actually, I don’t see anything wrong with it.” Riku nodded appreciatively. “Not too normal, not too punk… Not my style, but it looks good on you. When you get a little taller, the girls will be all over you.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing,” Sora muttered, his cheeks now colored with a blush. He wondered why he was reacting that way because his former friend looked at him. Was he embarrassed? Was it something else? To take his mind off it, he finished off his hot chocolate. When he looked back up, he had his blush under control.

“Nope. Your look is fine. Which brings us to the next part of our time.” Riku looked straight into Sora’s eyes, his face solemn. “Movies. We must watch movies.”

“What?!” Sora blinked, and scooted away from his former friend. “Why? I’m not on a date with a girl; I’m trying to get one!”

“They’re dating movies Sora.” Riku rolled his eyes, making this sound like the most obvious thing in the world. “They’re helpful; not just random love stories. Since I don’t have the time to teach you all the ins and outs of dating, you can watch these instead. It’s like a cram session.”

“I dunno…” Sora looked unconvinced and regarded Riku with suspicion. “I’m not sure that will help…”

“There’ll be popcorn.”

And just like that, Sora was going to watch movies. Which explains how he got where he was now, sitting on a stool in the Sasuhara’s kitchen as Riku made popcorn.

The two tromped to the living room with two bowls in hand (Sora was hungry) and sank down onto the couch. They were shortly joined by Namine, Riku’s baby sister, who cuddled up next to Riku as she played with her dolls. Riku put in the movie Hitch, and the movie marathon cram session began.

On their third movie the popcorn had been devoured, the sun had sunk low in the sky, and Namine had fallen asleep. Sora, who had been immersed in the movies, looked over at the time and panicked. He whipped out his cell phone and dialed his mom. It rang once or twice before she picked up, and he burst into a string of overly fast apologies.

“OhmygodMom,I’msosorryI’mlate!I’matRiku’shouse,wewerestudyingandIlosttrackoftime!!I’llgorighthomeifyouwant,pleasedon’tgetmad!!” Here Sora paused to take in air before he turned blue and suffocated. Riku just stared as his friend shrieked into the cell phone. “I’llnevereverdoitagain,andlikeIsaid,I’mreallyreallysorry,pleasedon’tbemad!!”

“Sora?” His mother sounded confused. It was to be expected. No matter how much you are used to a certain type of behavior, it was eight o’clock on a Friday night and Sora was talking at the speed of light. It was a miracle she didn’t hang up on him. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m late…?” Sora blinked. “I missed curfew… right?”

“Oh! So you did! Bad boy, Sora!” His mother scolded him with the quality of an angry sparrow. Mrs. Hikari could never quite grasp the concept of anger. Sora just had the misfortune to get Jiminy Cricket as a conscience. “Your father and I are out right now… We won’t be back for a while. I’m sorry to impose, but could you stay with Riku’s family tonight? I don’t know when we’ll be home.”

“What?” Sora sent a panicked glance Riku’s way, to see that the boy now looked interested and a little annoyed at the interruption. “But Mom! That would be rude! Can you really not get home?”

“Sorry Sora…” His mother sounded dejected now. “Well… If we hurry, I think we could make it by ten or so…”

“No.” Sora took a deep breath. It wasn’t fair for him to cut his parent’s dinner short because he’d been an idiot and missed curfew. He really had to get an extra house key made. “No, never mind. I’ll stay with the Sasuhara’s, or if I can’t, I’ll stay at a friend’s.”

“OK!” His mother’s voice lost all traces of remorse, proving she truly had been faking. Sora glared at him phone. “That’s perfect! I knew we could count on you, Sora! Have lots of fun, OK? I love you! Bye!” She hung up on him before he could protest, leaving Sora staring at his cell phone with the hostility of a few king cobras.

“Hey Riku…?” Sora dreaded this. Things had been going so well—perfect even! It almost felt like he and Riku were friends again. This would probably ruin it. Sora didn’t quite understand how or why, he just got that feeling. He looked over at Riku, who had paused the movie, and looked very intrigued by now.

“What?” The movie’s light distorted Riku’s features, but from where Sora sat, it almost looked like he was smirking. Sora wondered how that worked.

“Can I, um, crash over here tonight?” Sora braced himself for the refusal, expecting to be thrown out the front door any minute. Instead Riku shrugged and started the movie again.

“Yeah sure. As long as you’re cool with taking the sofa. Trust me, you don’t want to be anywhere near Sephiroth. He’s such a freak.”

Sora wasn’t really listening anymore, he just sort of stared. Riku… He wasn’t going to throw him out? It was OK for him to stay…. Sora beamed at the other boy, and grabbed him in a hug, smiling brightly into Riku’s shirt. Riku tensed and flailed for a moment before he realized Sora was hugging him and not strangling him. He twisted so he could wrap an arm around Sora’s shoulders, hugging him back as the movie played on.

“Thank you.” Sora whispered into Riku’s sweater. Riku gave him a little squeeze and let go, smirking.

“You’re welcome,” he said. “What are friends for?”

And that was how Sora and Riku became friends again.

They put Namine to bed and Riku brought a few cushions and a blanket to the sofa to make the makeshift bed for Sora. After that they made another bowl of popcorn and watched still more movies. To Sora, Riku’s supply seemed endless. After about the eighth movie he lost interest and began to try to think up prospective dates again. He failed miserably.

“Ugh.” Sora hung his head, glowering at the still smiling Riku who sat next to him. “According to you, there are no girls in the entire school who aren’t completely horrible! Why do you hang out with them if they bug you so much?”

“It’s not that—" Riku paused in mid-protest, a thoughtful frown on his face. “Hmm. I guess it is like that.” He smiled smoothly at Sora who suddenly wanted to strangle his friend very much. But he smiled. Friend. Not former friend; not anymore.

“Don’t dodge my question.” He pouted at Riku, who glanced back down from the movie looking amused. “Why do you hang out with them if they’re so awful?” Riku shrugged, which somehow annoyed Sora even more. “Do you like someone?” He pressed, inching closer to his friend. “Are you trying to keep them all to yourself? That’s not fair Riku!”
Riku looked over at Sora again, smiling as usual. “Well, I’m pretty rotten myself.” Something in Riku’s grin unnerved Sora and he backed away by reflex, bumping into the couch. He found that he wanted to pull down a pillow and put it between them. He didn’t. Riku approached steadily, still smiling with the self satisfaction of a cat that just found a mouse.

“Y-yeah?” Sora cursed himself for the tremor in his voice and tried to glare into Riku’s eyes, which had always seemed to perturb the silver haired boy when they were friends, if not stop him dead in his tracks. Riku’s eyes merely caught Sora’s and glimmered. Sora found that he couldn’t move anymore.

Sora swallowed. Hard.

“Yeah,” Riku replied in his insufferably silky smooth voice, now barely an inch between them. “I’m a sinner.”

“Uh…” At this point Sora’s brain was not functioning correctly. He had forgotten what they were talking about altogether—something about all of the girls in school being weird? Huh. Riku’s eyes were dizzying; Sora found he wanted to reach out and touch them. “Uh. Sinner. Yeah? Uh…” He struggled, and managed to shake off some of the fog that was enveloping his mind. “Um. How so?”

“Envy.” Riku’s mouth twitched into a slight smile again, seeming to love the way Sora was struggling. If Sora hadn’t been so disoriented, he probably would have been annoyed. But right now he could only think that Riku’s hair looked really soft. “I get jealous… Especially when the person I’m in love with asks me to set them up with someone else.”

Sora blinked. Huh?

“Figures you’d have a girly one like envy.” Sora thanked whatever God there was for keeping his voice level as he turned away. A blush flared up on his cheeks and he wondered vaguely if Riku could get drunk by drinking hot chocolate and eating popcorn. Did he even realize what he just said sounded like…?! Sora heard a noise, and looked up to see Riku almost right on top of him again. He had to stifle a gasp, and swallowed again. For some reason he found himself looking at Riku’s lips, which looked very soft. And were barely a centimeter from Sora’s. He could feel Riku’s breath ghosting over his mouth, and felt like he should say something important, but he had no idea what it was. Sora frowned, his head spinning once more. “Riku… Did you— uh, I mean—?"

Without another word Riku’s lips were pressed against Sora’s. The boy’s eyes widened with pure shock, his mouth falling open. Surprisingly Riku didn’t abuse this fact. The world spun around them at breakneck speed, and suddenly Sora couldn’t breathe. His heart pounded wildly, his lips tingled, and his face was surely the color of a tomato by now. His body felt like it was on fire.

Riku pulled away then, when Sora didn’t respond, and looked into the wide blue eyes that stared at him incredulously, his own sea green eyes perfectly serious. One of Riku’s hands reached out and brushed gently over Sora’s cheek. Riku was smiling again. Sora was staring.

I love you.

For once Sora didn’t ask any questions; he just leaned in to crush his lips against Riku’s, and the world began to spin.

And no, it was definitely not mono.

It was something much, much better.

When the Sasuhara’s came home the next morning, they found Sora and Riku curled up together on the sofa, looking extremely comfortable. As for the bet, Sora never did get a girlfriend, but all of Riku’s friends leave him alone. Anyone who isn’t a friend of Riku’s leaves him alone too, mostly out of fear. ‘Cause Riku will beat the living daylights out of them if they don’t. Anyway, you’ve probably guessed why… And honestly, I’ve never seen Sora so happy in my life.

Do I really have to say it?

Sora and Riku are finally together.

They didn’t break up after three months either!

Me: So did you guys liiike it? If I did a good job, you guys have got to review! Pwetty pwetty please! I was all good and updated and everything!

S.C.: GAH! KAITO, I’M SORRY OK?!

Kaito: DIE! DIE YOU MISERABLE LITTLE WORM!
Mizu: U-um… Moonl-light? Wh-where’s K-Kaito?

Me: Murdering my best friend. Why?

S.C.: DAI, I WILL KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLL YOU!!

Kaito: WISHFUL THINKING, IDIOT!
S.C.: …Izzat a chainsaw…? DAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!! SAVE ME!

Mizu: D-doesn’t th-that bother y-y-you?
Me: Not particularly. It’s fun to listen to!

Mizu: …

S.C.: DAI WAS LYING! SHE SAID IT! I NEVER SAID THE ‘P’ WORD! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!

Kaito: KILL!
Mizu: I… I th-think I’ll rescue S.C. b-b-before you g-get pressed with murder charges.

Me: Oh! Me too! I’m bored anyway.