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“Look at you, you are all grown up now.” Aqua puts her hand on top of his head and the gesture awakens sweet childhood memories. “You are even taller than me.”
It’s strange looking down at her, the woman who hasn’t aged a single day since the sunset they first met, eleven years ago. Someone as auspicious as the man who swore him strength; it’s gratifying to finally be able to put names to the recurring faces in his dreams. Before the islands fell to darkness, Riku was afraid he had just imagined them.
“Well, I will be seventeen in a few months.”
“Same as Ven, but he was still only up to my-” her hand goes to her chin, fingers straight and horizontal to it, but her expression wavers and her hand lowers to the start of her neck. That doesn’t seem to please her either, because she lifts it to her nose, then drops it to her chest. There is distress starting to furrow her brow.
Riku is quick to intervene. “That means he is a shortie, like Sora.”
The mist over Aqua’s eyes dissipates and after a few blinks, the soft smile returns to her face.
“I can’t believe how alike they are.” Her voice makes him think that she is daydreaming. She pats him on the shoulder. “You, on the other hand, are just like Terra.”
“Am I?”
“A strong, kind and resolute boy.” The fog reapers on her gaze, not as dense as before, but just as worrying. There is an odd twist to the curve of her lips. “He would be so proud.”
He wouldn’t be so sure of that. After everything he has done, how desperate he got. There was a point when he got tired of waiting for that mysterious stranger to fulfil his promise and decided to go search for him himself, even if he had to ally with evil fairies to accomplish it. He can imagine Terra not being too happy about Riku using the bequeathing as the spark that condemned his homeland. Still, he is trying to honour his memory every day. Strength to protect the things that matter. Terra deemed him worthy of the keyblade after listening to those words; they are the pledge that guides him now. Strenght to protect my precious person. He wonders if Terra would approve of the evolution.
Although, looking at Aqua now, Riku can guess Terra would share the sentiment.
“Even your keyblade looks like something he would use.”
Riku calls for Braveheart and it appears amidst ribbons of darkness and light’s metallic shine. When he holds it with both his hands, the weight is like and armour, its presence an old friend. Something his and at the same time borrowed, not full darkness nor full light. Balance found in war. His oath turned weapon, a shield to protect.
“It’s new, I had another one until some weeks ago.”
There is nothing but reverence in the way Aqua outlines the blunt edge with her fingertips. Untold stories hide behind the touch. Riku’s mind fills with questions that never make it to his mouth.
“What happened to the old one?”
He has given much thought to that question. What can shatter a manifestation of your heart? Heartbreak? Weakness? Grief? Doubt? Fear? At the end, Riku decided none of those answer suited him. “I outgrew it.” He says and it feels right.
Riku has already reached dawn.
“This one suits you.” She gives him a knowing smile and Riku finds himself returning it.
Maybe Aqua recognises the meaning behind; it wouldn’t be farfetched. She was capable of looking into his eyes when he was nothing but a kid with a head full of pretensions and still catch that whisper of perversion waiting to be feed. She was the first one to understand that he couldn’t go on his journey alone, that he needed to be protected as much as he desired to be the protector. And no one better than Sora could fulfil that role, his dear knight in yellow shoes, Riku wouldn’t be here without him.
Then, the door opens slightly and through the crack, Riku sees brown spikes peek out, followed by blue eyes curiously watching them both.
“Your new keyblade!” Sora cheers, entering fully into the room. Riku’s heart rejoices at the sight. He must learn how to stop that. “I couldn’t take a good look at it before.”
“Shouldn’t you be piloting the gummiship?” Asks Riku, passing Braveheart to him when he does grabby hands.
“Donald wanted to show off in front of the King.” His fingers close around the rubbery part of the guard and the keyblade hits the ground with a clank. “And I wanted to talk with Aqua.” The smile Sora directs her way is full of moonlight, a beacon in the night. Riku understands why he was the one destined to save her since the start.
But when Riku looks at Aqua, she doesn’t appear reassured or fond. Instead of the quiet joy he expects from her, Aqua is… holding her laugh.
“Oh, Sora…”
Confused, Riku turns towards him and, once he realises, he needs to suppress a chuckle against his fingers.
“What?” Sora has to tilt Braveheart to one side so it doesn’t obstruct his view. Oh, Sora… Riku might be starting to blush a little, how inconvenient. “What’s so funny?”
“Riku’s keyblade is as big as you.” Points out Aqua, merriment coating every word. It’s the most untroubled Riku has seen her yet.
“No, it isn’t.” He says, but he drags Braveheart in front of him and puts one hand flat where the keychain is attached and then slowly moves it towards himself in a straight line. His fingers brush the brown spikes on top of his forehead. “It is!”
At that, Aqua finally breaks out in a fit of giggles and Riku is, once again, awed at Sora’s power to make anyone around him happy. What a goof, his mind says while his face is trying to not betray his lovesick heart. Sora is moving Braveheart this way and that, comparing the blade’s width with his torso and letting out an indignant squawk when it covers his midsection completely. There is a strange tickle in his chest at seeing it, like Sora’s fingers are messing around inside his ribcage. The way he squeezes the guard with firm but careful strength and the warmth from his skin when he presses it against his arms, his torso, his face; Riku can feel it all on himself.
“And you move this with one hand?!” Sora tries to lift it up over his head, but his wrist seems to give up and he lets it touch the floor again. When his gaze falls on Riku, his eyes are lidded in mock outrage as he points an accusatory finger at him. “You have to stop getting cooler whenever I go away for more than five minutes.”
He is about to join in the banter, but Aqua wins him to it, asking in a merry tone. “Doesn’t he look like a knight, Sora?”
“He does!” The answer is instantaneous, the same as his shift from reproving to conspiratorial as he leans towards Aqua and, putting one hand in front of his mouth, stage whispers to her ear. “But, between you and me, he might be Disney Town’s prince soon.”
“I see.” Says she, fingers hiding the smile evident in her eyes.
Not that Riku isn’t happy to see her like this, but does it have to be over that joke? It’s embarrassing enough on a normal day.
“Mickey isn’t going to adopt me.”
“I bet his Majesty would if you asked.”
“Why would I ask?”
“To be royalty and order people around.” Then, he gets closer to Aqua again, signals to Riku with his thumb and says, as if he couldn’t hear him loud and clear. “He is a bit bossy.”
“Is he now?”
It’s Riku’s turn to get in Sora’s space. “And you sure are cheeky for someone I could swing around by the ankles like a baseball bat.”
Silence. A heavy exhale from Sora’s aghast lips settles between them and Riku fears he missed some cue in the show he was putting on to cheer Aqua up, because wide eyes are looking at him, their beloved blue a darker hue than what Riku is used to.
“You could.” Riku has the feeling that should be followed by something.
However, Sora doesn’t elaborate; he just gulps audibly and directs his attention to Braveheart with something Riku doesn’t trust himself to see as bashfulness. There is certainly no sign of shyness when he steps to the centre of the room and starts swinging the keyblade, putting it over his shoulder and slashing the narrow space between the bunks. Quite the risky move to make when bedrooms in gummiships are this small. One side glance at Aqua tells him she is thinking the same.
“Don’t hurt yourself” he warns and one second later he is stopping his own weapon from hitting him when Sora holds it in the air, “or us.”
“Hey, I’m not that careless,” Sora turns around to dig Braveheart’s tip on Riku’s chest, expression valiant and sassy again. “I saved your ass out there! Remember?” It all crumbles in an instant, though, when he seems to remember that Aqua is in the room with them. Riku laughs internally at how quickly regret and embarrassment make him pale and blush simultaneously. “Eh-uh… Sorry, Master Aqua.”
Said Master is still smiling serenely as she dismisses his apology, with no trace of visible distress anywhere in her posture. Riku can’t help a grin of his own. She really deserves a break from the anguish of oppressing darkness. That one is a hard battle to fight; Riku can attest to it.
“No need, I’m glad you get along so well.”
“Of course!” Without warning, Sora jumps to his side and sneaks one arm under his jacket to curve it around his waist. Riku isn’t proud of how still he turns at his closeness, how he hyperfocuses on Sora’s side pressed to his. “We are best friends.”
Riku is my best friend!
It’s difficult to believe, but maybe things haven’t changed that much. When it comes to the heart, they both can be stubborn. Holding tightly to each other, a link tying them together for good measure, even in dreams. A connection that allows Sora to wield Riku’s keyblades like they are his own and turned Riku into a creature of light, darkness and oneiric reveries.
What a chaotic picture they paint; Riku wouldn’t have it any other way. Although he wonders what Aqua would think if she knew the full story. Perhaps the smile she directs at them now wouldn’t be as beatific or her gestures as affectionate when she pats their heads. The act is reminiscent of the first real promise Sora made to him. On the other hand, she was the one to foresee that Riku would go astray, so maybe she wouldn’t be surprised. She could have already felt it when he saved him in the Realm of Darkness: that Riku was doomed because he deserved it.
“You make each other stronger.” It’s a heavy statement, yet Aqua pronounces it with such lightness. “I saw it myself.”
The image of their Combined Keyblade appears in his mind and Riku feels a tug at his heart with as much clarity as the squeeze Sora gives his waist, dangerously close to the scar on his hips. He knows Sora is looking at his profile, demanding attention, wanting to share a victorious smile, so Riku keeps his eyes on Aqua. There is just so much thought he can give to the crazy stunts he pulls off together with Sora without exposing himself.
She puts one hand on his shoulder. “Thank you for finding me, Riku.” Then, she does the same to Sora, but with a slightly coy tilt as she adds, “and thank you for saving my ass too, Sora.”
Sora splutters and recoils in embarrassment. Riku and Aqua share a laugh at his expense.
The door to the bedroom closes, but Riku doesn’t walk away yet. He is still a novice in regard to being a Dream Eater and all the abilities it grants him; that isn’t going to stop him from trying, though. While elusive and inconsistent in the Waking Worlds, Riku managed to tap into some of his Spirit powers while he was wishing Aqua a good rest, casting on her the gentle version of a Sleep spell. At least, it is the closest thing he has to compare it to. It didn’t feel like the bursting of magic, but rather the stretch of a limb he had not used in a long time.
All in all, Riku hopes trying to put to sleep someone other than his dreamer isn’t detrimental. He just wants Aqua to have good dreams; he will give them to her himself if he has to. So, he waits outside the room, trying to search for the distinct smell of someone drifting into the Sleeping Worlds.
That is, until he is swept off his feet and into Sora’s hold.
“What?!”
“I can carry you too,” is the explanation he receives, “you aren’t the only one here who got stronger.”
The expression on Sora’s face is a complicated one: self-assured but not cocky, yet still wanting to be praised. It’s too close for the safety of Riku’s sanity. He isn’t used to looking up at him, much less being carried like this; it’s a first. And not something anyone would think possible after one look at Sora’s thin arms. Riku knows better, though, Sora is as strong of body as he is strong of heart, he just never thought he would use it on him like this. A part of him wonders if Sora is trying to one-up him for old time’s sake. Riku did goad him a bit about being able to use a keyblade of his size, after all.
Revenge or not, Riku has to be diplomatic about it. “Okay, okay, I get it, you can put me down now.”
Sora’s gaze doesn’t waver. “Nah.”
Then he starts walking down the corridor. Riku’s breath hitches.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking a stroll.”
“You remember we are in the gummiship, don’t you?” He squirms, but Sora’s hold is firm and he tightens his grip. The blood rushing to his cheeks feels like a death sentence. He loves this too much. “Not much space to run around.”
His words are proven true when, only after a short walk, they emerge into the cockpit and Riku wants to return to the Realm of Darkness, because Donald, Goofy and Mickey are here and they are watching Sora carrying him bridal style, of all things.
“Gosh! Is Riku okay?” Asks Mickey, his voice showing real worry even if Riku would prefer if he faked being blind for a few minutes.
“He is!” There is not a speck of shame in him, even if he is showing Riku off as if he were the big catch of the day.
From the pilot seat, that damn duck is giving him the smuggest smirk Riku has seen on any anthropomorphic animal. Meanwhile, Goofy isn’t even looking at them, his eyes are focused on the void of space, one thin ear raised with one gloved hand put next to it.
“Gawrsh, Donald, do you hear those bells?”
“What bells?” One knowing glance from Goofy has Donald following on the bit. Oh no, Riku can guess the joke. “Oh! Those bells.”
“Sounds like weeding ones, right?”
“Very lovely.” The duck singsongs in his gibberish quack.
Then they both start laughing, a bizarre cacophony that he knows future Nightmares will use to taunt him. Mickey at least has the decency to turn around, even if his shaking frame betrays his chuckles. Riku would like to resent the three of them for it, but he has indeed gotten too soft. Fifteen-year-old Riku would have never tolerated this.
Fifteen-year-old Riku had never been held bridal style by Sora, though, so Riku is fine by how things are.
“What are they talking about?”
Of course, Sora is completely oblivious to it. Stars, have those two been teasing him their whole journey? Did Sora truly catch none of it?
Why would he? The concept of being in love with you is so farfetched it doesn’t even cross his mind. Riku could do without the reminder, but he thanks his brain anyway; he was getting too hopeful for a moment there.
“Just put me down.” He demands and, predictably, Sora ignores him and carries him to the closest passenger seat, depositing him on it like he is precious cargo, like he doesn’t want to let go just yet.
Donald and Goofy periodically humming the wedding march acts as background noise for the rest of the trip.