Title: Falling for the Second Time

Pairing: RikuSora.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Summary: Working in a library is fun. It’s less fun when you have a stalker, but it evens out when you get a hot new security guard named Riku. Everything would be just great if Sora weren’t plagued by freaky memories of said new hot security guard beating the crap out of him with something called a keyblade.

Notes: I see a lot of fics where Axel and Roxas meet again in the next life, but I never see any RikuSora-centric ones. This makes me sad. Therefore, I am fixing it by writing one myself!

I.

“Excuse me,” a discouragingly familiar voice said, and Sora glanced up to find none other than the patron he had mentally named Creepy McCreeperson. His spiky hair invaded his vision, spilling partway down his back in a gravity-defying display of vibrant, artificial-looking red. But Sora knew it must have been real, because it matched his eyebrows, also stark red, made all the more vivacious by the sheer green feline eyes set directly below them. Every time Sora had a shift at the reference desk, without fail, Creepy McCreeperson would come to the technology help desk and ask him stupid questions about printers, opening files, and saving documents. They were all things Sora was sure a five year old could figure out, and yet this guy continued to come up with new retarded questions to ask every freaking day, to the point where Sora was convinced he was just making shit up as an excuse to talk to him.

Gahh! Tell him to go away! Tell him the wireless committed seppuku! Tell him you ate all the Ethernet cables in the wiring closet and all the computers are down!

“Yes?” he responded instead, effectively cutting off the ridiculous suggestions his brain was throwing at him. Like internet could commit honorable suicide. Like it could commit ANY kind of suicide, for that matter.

What the hell, brain? Was that really the best you could do?

Creepy flashed him a razorblade smile and held up his laptop, pointing to the wireless icon on the screen that had a forlorn red X across it. “My laptop’s not connecting to the internet.”

Well, at least that seemed like a real problem. Sora fixed stuff like that every day – for people with real brains, even. “I can fix that!” he chirped, momentarily assured that Creepy wasn’t going to drag him off into the dusty library stacks and rape him.

Creepy’s smile turned into a grin as he pulled up a rolly chair and sat down far enough away that Sora remained unconcerned. Working in a library was pretty interesting most of the time. The building was gigantic, so he had lots of fun running up and down four flights of stairs every day and snagging lunch or dinner in the cozy café on the bottom level. Most days he held the entirety of the library’s internet in the palm of his hand, and that was a pretty cool feeling. He was like a superhero. Except as a techie.

“Okie dokie,” he sang, easily creating a manual connection and swiveling the laptop back around to face Creepy. “Put in your name and password!”

“Okay,” Creepy said, typed in the appropriate information, and passed it back. Sora paused for a moment to glance at his username and blinked at it.

“Axel?” he questioned. “That’s a weird username.”

“Uh. That’s my actual name,” Creepy said.

“Oh!” Flushing, Sora ducked his head and resumed working his amazing wizard techie magic on Creepy – err, Axel’s laptop. It was weird that he’d gone all this time fixing everything in existence for him without ever learning his name. Then again, he spent most of his time preoccupied with the heebie jeebies when he was around, so he’d never really wanted to ask. There was something about him that made Sora feel uneasy, like trouble was always a mere two steps behind him.

“So.” Axel folded his arms on the desk and leaned forward, looking into Sora’s eyes with a smirk. “What’s your name?”

“Sora,” he replied, and immediately wished he’d lied.

Great, now he knows my name. Why would you do that, mouth? You traitor!

“That’s a nice name,” the redhead hummed, although he looked oddly – disappointed? What the eff? Sora was an AWESOME name, okay?

“I like to think so.” Plastering on a sunshiney smile despite a returning case of massive heebie jeebies, he pushed the now-internet-enabled laptop back over and declared, “All set!”

“Thanks,” Axel said, the disappointed look vanishing. He closed his laptop and tucked it under his arm as he stood, his eyes lingering on Sora’s face, making the brunet distinctively uncomfortable.

He squirmed in his seat. “What? Do I have something on my face?”

Axel shook his head and grinned. “Naw. You’ve just got beautiful eyes.”

“O-oh.” His face instantly turned red, and he turned his head away so fast it felt like he pulled a muscle. He reached up to rub it with a grimace and nearly whined at the painful, almost burning sensation. It was like his entire body was betraying him.

ET TU, NECK?

He could still feel Axel hanging by the desk, so he stammered, “Th-thank you,” and quickly busied himself with what he’d been doing before the redhead had come over. Which had actually been absolutely nothing, consisting mostly of goofing off on Facebook and Gmail on the staff computer, but he somehow managed to make it look important.

It took several more agonizing moments before he heard Axel’s footsteps, fading away towards the study area, and he let out a sigh of relief. Out of habit, his eyes flickered to the clock on the computer. Ten more minutes, and then he could leave, and then there would be no more Creepy Axel McCreeperson, and he could eat tacos and watch crappy television and all would be right with the world. Thank freaking god.

“Blahhh,” Sora moaned dramatically as he let himself into Roxas’s apartment without knocking, instantly flopping face-down on his best friend’s couch.

Luckily, Roxas had heard the key in the lock, so he’d been prepared for the other boy’s sudden appearance – prepared for an attack of the dreaded drama llama, however, he had not. Sighing, he snapped shut his physics book (he was never going to get any homework done with Sora around, anyway) and tossed it to the floor. “Okay, I’ll bite. What happened?”

“Creepy McCreeperson was hitting on me again today,” the brunet whimpered into a throw pillow. He curled up on his side, facing the back of the couch, and stared at the odd striped combination of purple, white and blue in the fabric. It smelled like cologne that wasn’t Roxas’s, and he didn’t even want to imagine why the scent was wedged down between the couch cushions.

Ew. Bad mental images.

“Oh, god,” Roxas said, rolling his eyes. “That again? You should just tell him you’re not interested.”

“I know,” Sora whined and wiggled around. He had the urge to roll onto his back and kick his legs like a baby, but he stifled it. “I just haven’t yet. It’s complicated.”

Roxas arched a straw-yellow eyebrow. “You mean you’re a pussy?”

“No, because I’m nice,” he snapped back. “Too nice. I can't do it. If I tell him I don’t like him, he’ll get all hurt and sulky and look at me with his EYES—”

“As most humans do,” Roxas interjected dryly. “Dude, seriously, just grow a pair and tell him to get lost. It’ll just get more awkward the longer you let it go on.”

“I guess,” he mumbled, dejected, and flopped onto his other side to look at his best friend. If Roxas were in this situation, he probably would have cussed Axel out upon their first meeting, or punched him or something. Which was why Roxas was kind of banned from working in any type of customer service, a decision Sora couldn’t exactly disagree with.

“Stop moping,” Roxas ordered. Seconds later, he leaned over the side of his chair (which matched the couch) and fished his shoe off the floor, heaving it at Sora’s head.

“GAH!” The brunet sat up with a yelp and furiously rubbed his head. “What the heck was that for?”

“I said stop moping!” he repeated with a dangerous look. “I don’t want you here if you’re just going to have a pity party on my sofa.”

“But you looove me,” Sora taunted, wiggling his fingers.

Roxas narrowed his eyes. “Don’t make me kick you out.”

“Whatever.” Pity party over with, Sora sat up straight and bounced in his seat. “Let’s get tacos!”

“Let’s not and say we did,” the other boy retorted, although it was obvious at this point that he was just being difficult for the fun of it, as he was wont to do. There was a small smile skirting around his mouth, and he didn’t bother to hide it as Sora continued bouncing up and down excitedly.

“Let’s go to the park, then!” he declared. “We can eat sandwiches.”

Glancing at the clock, Roxas made a face and said, “Dude, it’s like nine thirty. It’s dark. Shouldn’t you be heading back to the dorms now, anyway?”

Ugh. The dorms.

Sora was not particularly fond of the dorms. Sure, it was within walking distance of work and all, but his room was tiny and his roommate was absolutely nuts. Well, no, that wasn’t fair – Demyx wasn’t NUTS, per se. He was kind of (really a lot) like Sora in that he was lively and cheerful and optimistic, but with the added bonus of an annoying music obsession and the compulsion to blast iTunes at all hours of the day. And if he wasn’t playing music on his computer, he was playing it himself on the funky instrument he always had strapped to his back. The mixture of too much noise and bubbliness in one room was overwhelming, to put it simply.

Plus, Demyx liked to have sex with his boyfriend. A lot. Which was very awkward, and Sora did not like coming home to a rubber band around the door knob and soft indiscreet noises coming from inside, because it meant he had to sit in the hallway until they finished.

“Can’t I just stay here?” he whined, stretching his arms over his head, and gave Roxas a pleading look. “I promise not to steal the blankets.”

The blond sighed and smiled. “Okay, sure, but if you kick me, your ass is sleeping on the couch.”

“Yay!” Leaping up from the couch, Sora dove onto the other boy’s chair and hugged him, his arms looped tightly around his neck. “Thank you! You are so the best friend ever.”

A smirk. “Yeah, I know.”

“Will you protect me from the big bad creeper tomorrow?” he asked, batting his eyelashes innocently.

Roxas laughed and pushed at his face. “I will kick his ass to Timbuktu,” he promised solemnly.

“Wherever that is,” Sora muttered, leaping from the chair and pulling Roxas up with him excitedly. “Let’s eat ice cream and watch a movie!”

“Mali,” the blond replied somewhat automatically, then grinned at his friend’s childlike behavior and mussed his hair into even crazier spikes. “And you don’t need any more sugar.” At Sora’s beseeching look, Roxas just snorted and shook his head. “It’s not MY fault you came over without warning. Some of us have homework to do.”

And with that, he plopped back into his chair, picked up his physics book, and did his best to learn about the scientific method for probably the gazillionth time since high school, all whilst ignoring the brunet fluttering about his house and entertaining thoughts of castrating whatever pseudo-stalker was pestering Sora. If they ever ran into each other, it would be Roxas’s fist introducing itself to Creepy’s face.

Creepy McCreepersons aside, Sora freaking loved his job. He had keys to most of the cool parts of the library (strictly for work purposes only, his boss warned him), and he always delighted at the opportunity to do work in some of the more hidden areas, despite the admitted freakiness of said places. The next day was one of those such opportunities.

“Sora,” his boss, Leon, began nearly the second he walked into work, “there are some enabled Ethernet ports in the fourth floor wiring closet with no activity. I want you to go up there and unplug them so we can save money.”

“Aye aye, captain!” Sora said, clicking his heels together and giving him a little salute as he dumped his book bag onto the ground next to Leon’s desk. His boss barely paid Sora’s pile of crap a second glance, quite used to Sora making a mess of things whenever he was around. He was a hard worker, a good technician, and he always cleaned up after he was done. He could put up with a few hours of disorder if it meant the brunet finished his work.

Gleefully, Sora departed for the elevator right away, hopping from foot to foot as he waited for the cheerful ping that let him know it had arrived. The fourth floor wiring closet, if he remembered correctly, was in the back of a very creepy room with some noisy generators of some kind, accompanied by some very cool-looking tunnels. Well, okay, so they weren’t tunnels – hallways, more like, but they were dark and echoed when he yelled into them, and that was enough to pique his interest. He was certain Leon wouldn’t mind if he poked around a bit, especially if he neglected to mention that part when he reported back.

Springing off the elevator the moment it had reached its destination, he sprinted around a few corners until he reached the appropriate room, jingling the keys in anticipation as he opened the door. The whirr of the port units amongst the much louder generators instantly filled his ears, and he gave a happy hum as he stood in front of all the blinky lights and spaghetti-like mass of Ethernet cables running up and down the units. It looked rather overwhelming, but Sora was used to this sort of thing, and expertly unplugged the non-blinky ports and bundled up the cords, setting them neatly aside.

He poked around the ominous tunnels and nooks and crannies inside the room until his curiosity was sated, and then sauntered back to the door, frowning as he found it closed.

Whoopsies. Looks like I forgot to prop it open.

The library doors locked automatically whenever they closed, but luckily, he still had his key in his pocket. Pulling it out, he whistled to himself as he inserted it into the lock... erm -- INSERTED IT INTO THE LOCK... WHAT THE HELL? It didn’t fit!

“Oh, shit,” he breathed aloud, tugging on the door handle, but it didn’t budge. He was locked in. This was not good. Frantically, he tried every other key on his key ring, including the one to his parents’ house, even his bike lock, but none of them worked. He was trapped in one of the most out-of-the-way, secret rooms in the entire damn library of giganticness, stuck with only dead cockroaches and a staggering mass of cobwebs for company, not to mention the creepy tunnels.

But he refused to die in here. Desperately, he pounded on the door and continued jiggling the handle, yelling, “Help!” and, “I’m stuck in here!” in a whiny, distressed tone of voice. It took several minutes of this pathetic display before he realized he had his cell phone in his pocket. He whipped it out without further delay, hit speed dial 2, and waited for Kairi to pick up.

Kairi was kind of like his wife, except not. Which didn’t make any sense at all. They had all the dynamics and committed emotions of a married couple, complete with occasional playful banter and bickering, only without any romantic or physical aspect. Overall, it worked out pretty nicely, and between his wifey and his best friend, he was pretty well taken care of as far as food and a place to stay were concerned when Demyx was driving him crazy. Or just when he was feeling needy and lonely.

Kairi answered on the first ring. “Husband?”

“Hey, wife!” he said brightly. “Would you care to let me out of the wiring closet on the first floor?”

“Let you out?” she echoed, amused. “You are the only person I know who could get stuck in a wiring closet, Sora.”

“I know,” he mumbled in embarrassment. “Could you please come let me—”

“Do you need help?” a smooth voice interrupted him, and Sora nearly dropped his phone in surprise. “I think I have the key somewhere.”

“Gotta go,” he hissed to Kairi, ignoring her squawk of protest, and flipped his phone shut. “Yes!” he answered the mystery voice loudly. “I got locked in when the door shut.”

A soft chuckle. “I can see that. Hold on a minute, and I’ll get you out.”

“Okay,” he called back, fidgeting nervously. He was worried that Scissorman from Clock Tower was going to pop out of the crawl space above him and cleave him in half with his giant pair of scissors. He wasn’t sure if there was anything nearby he could use to knock him out and run away. He wished real life were more like video games, so he could hear the ominous stirrings of music to let him know where Scissorman or any other bad guys were.

Luckily, he didn’t have to worry long, because the door opened and he instantly threw himself onto his savior with relief.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he said, holding onto the stranger’s waist without really thinking much of it.

“…You’re welcome,” Mystery Man said eventually, patting his back with one hand and ruffling the top of his hair with the other.

Beaming, Sora pulled back to look his savior in the face and promptly felt out of breath. Looking into his eyes was like a lightning bolt running down his spine, if lightning bolts were warm and fuzzy while still being completely electrifying. He blushed and stepped away. “So, are you new here?”

Mystery Man nodded with a kind, elegant smile that made Sora’s knees feel gooey. “I’m the new security guard,” he explained. “My name’s Riku. And you are?”

“Uhhh,” he said, still staring stupidly at Riku’s beautiful, beautiful eyes. He had no idea what color they were. They were like some new color all their own that hadn’t been named yet. Like SPLENDIFEROUS.

“Yes?” Riku asked, raising his eyebrows.

“It’s. It’s. Um.” Oh crap, he'd completely forgotten his name. What was it? Wasn’t it something like-- “Oh, that’s right! It’s Sora!”

Riku laughed, and the sound warmed Sora’s frantically fluttering heart. “You forgot your name?”

“Ehehe, yeah,” he said and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. “It happens sometimes, apparently.”

“That’s cute,” the security guard commented with an amused, unfairly attractive smile.

For a moment, Sora was afraid he would literally swoon and faint on the dirty wiring closet floor. Had he really just called him cute? His heart felt like it was going to explode in gooey red bits all over Riku’s gorgeous face. But he didn’t dare blight his lovely aristocratic features, so he shook himself and forced himself to get his act together. Just as he was about to reply with something undoubtedly charming and wonderful, Riku glanced down at his watch and made a face.

“Sorry,” he murmured, stepping away from the petite brunet, and gave him an apologetic look. “I’m behind on my rounds now. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay,” Sora breathed, and he instantly knew that he would. Something about Riku made him feel perfectly safe and content, like he’d finally found something he’d been yearning for his entire life without even realizing he’d been missing anything. He had half a mind to follow him around on his rounds like a besotted duckling, but he thought that might be a little forw and nothing less than downright awkward. He watched him go, leaning against the wall outside the closet until his cell phone started ringing.

“GAH!” he yelped in surprise and pulled it out of his pocket. It was Kairi. “Wife?” he answered.

“How dare you hang up on me!” she fumed. “I was going to help you! Are you okay?”

“Very,” he said, toes curling at the memory of Riku, despite the fact that their exchange had been so brief.

“Well, good. Then get your cute little butt downstairs, because Leon’s got work for us to do.”

“Will do,” he chirruped. “See you in a few.”

“Bye, husband!”

Humming happily, Sora tucked his phone back into his pocket and patted his pants to make sure he had his keys. Unfortunately, he had them right where they were supposed to be, which meant he couldn’t track down any hot security guards and ask them to let him back into the wiring closet of evil to retrieve his keys. Maybe some other time. For now, he had work to do and a wife to visit, and not necessarily in that order.

A/N: Long time, no update! I’m trying kind of a different writing style for this. I hope you like it.

:) Please remember to review!

Also, for the record, I don't think Axel is creepy OR stupid.