A/N: This is more or less my ultimate headcanon spanning the period of time between KH II and DDD. The puppies are 100% purely self indulgent. There is no other reason for there to be puppies in this story. Also Rudy is a pit bull. Please attempt to enjoy. U_U

The King, Donald, and Goofy didn't stay for very long. As it turns out, being the monarch of a kingdom, King Mickey had a few royal duties to catch up on. Queen Minnie had been running the kingdom more or less entirely by herself for the past several years and according to the King, she was itching for some respite. So after a few hours of Sora excitedly showing them around the play island and King Mickey warning everyone not to get too comfortable because he and Master Yen Sid might call on them at any time, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey departed from Destiny Islands with little more fan fair than a few hastily wiped tears on Sora's part.

Afterwards everything was too quiet. A ringing in Riku's ears kept him from hearing the waves slither up the coast line or gulls squawking from their nests on top of rustling palm leaves. The pain in his side and leg suddenly returned with a vicious throb and he sort of wanted to just pass out and not wake up for possibly a month until Sora said, "I guess we should go home, huh?" At which point Riku felt the slow creep of panic climbing its way up his throat.

He turned to Kairi with what he hoped was relative calm and said, "How much does Nana and my uncle know?"

Kairi tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear. "Um, about that…" she expelled a quiet breath. "I'm not really sure?"

"What do you mean?" Sora asked. "Didn't my mom ask about me after her memories returned?"

"Well," Kairi said. "Probably, but… I had already left by that point so I don't really know. And, Riku, everyone just thought that you had disappeared a long time ago. I don't know exactly how much Namine was able to alter their memories, but I know what I remembered a least wasn't quite right."

Riku felt like he was sinking too deep into the sand. "So, they might know… everything…"

He jumped when Kairi's hands slipped over one of his. "Maybe…" she said. "But maybe not. We can't know until we go home, Riku."

He jumped again when Sora's hand fell on his shoulder. "And besides," Sora said smiling. "Even if we explain everything and everyone still disowns you, I'll always be here to follow you into exile, Riku!"

"Me too!" Kairi said, tugging on Riku's hand.

Riku fought a small smile and groaned loudly. "Exiled out at sea with you two?" he said. "No thanks. I choose death."

Sora just laughed, but Kairi gasped and pulled Riku's arm again. "Rude!" she said.

"Come on you big, baby." Sora moved around Riku and took hold of his other hand. "Kairi," he said glancing to the side and smiling a little bit too wide.

Kairi returned the look and Riku sighed. "Are you guys seri-ugh!" Riku was tugged forward by his two friends so violently he nearly fell flat on his face as they proceeded to drag him all the way to the single docked boat at the end of the play island's pier. About half way across the beach Riku stopped fighting them and walked the rest of the way like a man on death row, head bowed, hands bound.

It was a miracle that they all fit in Kairi's small boat. If Sora hadn't been so happy to sit cross-legged in the bottom they may have had to make two trips. Riku found his willingness to sacrifice a bench seat for the floor to be suspicious and Sora's true motives revealed themselves when he said, "Riku put those buff arms to use and row us home,"

"What?" Riku groaned loudly and let his head roll back against his shoulders. "Are you kidding me? I took a light saber to the gut for you, you do it."

Riku didn't even have to move his head to know Sora was pouting. He could just imagine that stupid round face all puffed up with his arms crossed over his chest. "Hey, I gave you the last of my Hi-Potions for that, you're fine. And I just saved the realm of light for the second time in as many years." Here Riku imagined Sora holding up two fingers for dramatic emphasis. "I think I deserve a break don't you?"

"Excuse me?" Despite his great and unwavering desire to not move ever again, Riku's head snapped up to look down at Sora who was wearing the exact expression that Riku had imagined on him, and there were the two fingers, still hovering in front of Sora's face. "You took a year-long nap while I spent twelve months wandering through darkness trying to keep your tired ass safe from the organization."

Sora shrugged, hand falling back to his lap. "Yeah so technically I saved the realm of light twice in one year, you're not making a very convincing case for yourself, Riku."

There was a loud and drawn out sigh from the other end of the boat and Riku looked up to see Kairi frowning at them, an ore in each hand. They were already a good ways from the island. Kairi rolled her eyes at Riku and said, "If you five year olds could stop arguing for more than ten seconds you would have noticed that there was another candidate ready and willing to row you both home."

Sora turned around beaming at Kairi. "Aww, thanks Kairi, you're the greatest…"

"I know," she smiled at him.

The muscles on Kairi's arms flexed as she rowed them farther and farther from the play island. Riku squinted. "Have you been working out?"

She turned her smile away from Sora and towards him with a giggle. "You noticed?"

Sora gaped, "Wow Kairi, you'll be as buff as Riku soon!"

She made a face and said, "I hope not."

"Hey, you calling me ugly?"

Kairi giggled again and said, "Maybe,"

Riku, who had been expecting an answer more along the lines of, "of course not Riku, you're beautiful," stared at her with a fully unhinged jaw.

Predictably, Sora cracked up. Riku kicked him gently in the stomach which did nothing to deter his laughter and said, "I hate both of you."

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By the time they drifted into the mainland, Sora had fallen asleep slumped next to the side of the boat with his cheek squished against Riku's knee. Riku bounced his leg to wake Sora up and received a displeased sounding, "Rikuuu…" for his efforts.

Riku laughed. "Wake up, doofus. We're here and you're drooling all over my pants."

The boat bumped lightly against the wooden stilts of the pier and Kairi stood up with the ores and set about tying the boat to its dock while Sora yawned loudly and denied having drooled on Riku despite the obvious wet spot on his knee.

Kairi had brought them to the mayor's private pier, but it meant that Riku's house was clear across the neighborhood and Sora's was in almost the opposite direction. The thought of walking all that way to Nana's was cringe worthy, but the thought of asking the mayor for a ride was even more so. Riku stood and helped Kairi shake out her tarp while Sora climbed lazily onto the pier.

There was a cool breeze rolling in from the ocean and the last of the sunset's warm colors had finally been sucked over the edge of the horizon leaving a chilly blue sky to faintly illuminate the ties on Kairi's tarp. It was the rainy season – probably, Riku didn't actually know what month it was here – so if they didn't cover Kairi's boat it could be sunk with rain water the next time she needed it.

"I know you guys are probably tired," Kairi said while she worked at fastening the tarp to the side of her boat. "But if you're feeling up to it later tonight I know Selphie and Tidus and Wakka all want to see you, and it's a Wednesday so everybody's going to be at Rico's if you guys want to come after you've had a chance to rest up a little."

"Sure!" Sora said. The word left his mouth before Kairi had even finished speaking and she looked to Riku for a similar agreement but as much as he wanted to, he just couldn't push the words out of his mouth.

Instead he said, "I don't know," because the idea of facing literally everyone in one day was enough to make him feel like he might barf. He compromised by adding a, "maybe," and then stood up, having finished securing his end of the tarp.

A hand fell on his back, warming the space between his shoulder blades. "Don't worry," Sora said. "If anybody says anything mean to you, Kairi and I will back you up."

"Yeah, Riku." Kairi said, climbing onto the pier and dusting her hands. "And you don't have to tell them anything if you don't want to, they'll understand."

"I'll have to tell them something." Riku said

Sora's hand moved up and down Riku's back a few times, "Well, not right away. Today you can just tell them you're back and the rest can wait."

"Yeah…"

Sora smiled at him. "You can do it Riku!" It was The Big Smile, the, "everything is going to be okay because I'll make it okay," smile. Riku thought that Sora might have vanquished some of the heartless he fought just by smiling that smile in their general direction.

As hard as he tried, Riku only managed to return a fraction of it, his lips barely quirked up at the corners. "Sure," he said, and it sounded more sarcastic than he had meant, but Sora didn't notice – or he refused to notice.

"Okay, then, let's go home and we'll all meet at Rico's by seven. Deal?" Sora looked from Kairi to Riku.

"Deal!" Kairi said.

Riku expelled a put-upon sigh and said, "Yeah, fine." Sora stuck his tongue out at him and Riku retaliated by rolling his eyes into the back of his head and pulling his eyelids down – a morbid talent he had perfected at the tender age of eight. Kairi made a noise of disgust and muttered something under her breath that sounded like "boys", and then they were all leaving the pier, its old wooden planks creaking under their feet.

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Sora didn't know if Kairi had warned their parents that they were coming back, or if his mom was just pyschic, but the moment he walked in the front door she had affixed herself to him in a whimpering mess of alternately pitiful sounding and threating questions.

"Hi mom," were the only words he was really able to get out between her chokehold around his neck and her frantic noises of relief.

For as long as Sora could remember, his mom had been a crier. Not because she broke down all the time, or was emotionally unstable; crying was simply the way she emoted regardless of the emotion. Anger, sadness, happiness, and disappointment all elicited the same physical response from Sora's mom, and that response was crying.

Normally, Sora could tell what he was in for by the way she cried. If he had done something stupid – that time he and Riku went island hunting and didn't tell anyone they had left – the disappointment was etched into the furrow of her brow and gleamed in the tears that squeezed themselves out of her eyes by sheer force of will. Anger tended to beget streaming tears, gritted teeth, and a nose that flared as wide as a bull's. Sadness and Happiness looked more or less the same except one involved sobbing and the other laughing.

Today, Sora felt like he was seeing all four at once. It was a little overwhelming to be honest. Somewhere deep in his chest a throbbing, aching knot of guilt formed for the fear and frustration his mom had felt since darkness had consumed the Islands, and when he heard his dad's name strewn amidst his mom's wild tirade of questions and accusations, Sora knew that explaining this whole situation might be a little bit harder than summoning the Keyblade and saying, "look what I can do, mom!"

So Sora spent the better part of two hours recounting in near painful detail his adventures with Donald and Goofy and when it came to Riku's part in them he remained as vague as possible, leaving out the parts where Riku helped kidnap Kairi and the other princesses, but keeping in the parts where he was being manipulated by Maleficent and sacrificed himself to help bring back the Islands.

There were several points at which his mom specifically said that this sounded like one of the stories he used to make up when he was little and that she wanted to speak with Riku to hear his side of things. This happened largely when Sora told her about the Heartless and Roxas and Nobodies, but also during the part about Riku turning into Ansem while Sora was asleep. He wisely chose not to mention the fact that his two best friends, Donald and Goofy, were a giant anthropomorphized duck and dog, or that King Mickey was a mouse. By the time Sora got around to actually summoning the Keyblade for her she had started to look a little bit less skeptical and a little bit more worried, like everything Sora had said sounded good and fun until she thought about it actually happening to him.

Fearing that his mom might be more scared for his safety than proud of him, Sora decided to tack on a reassuring, "but I'm basically a Keyblade master at this point, so, you know, I'm really strong and skilled and stuff so you don't have to worry about me getting hurt or anything. Isn't that great, Mom?"

Apparently this didn't deter her worries very well because she still gave him that I'm about to ground you for eternity look that she had also given him that time he jumped out of a tree, landed on Riku and broke his arm (Riku's arm, not Sora's. Sora had been fine and quite frankly still didn't understand why he was the one to be grounded when Riku had used the evils of peer pressure to get him to jump in the first place.)

When Sora's name came out of his mother's mouth in a low and drawn out manner, Sora immediately held up his hand and added, "Plus, plus, Riku was there basically the whole time," which was more or less true. "So really, how much danger was I ever actually in… right?" The laugh he let out was supposed to be confident and reassuring but it left him in one sad, trepid breath instead. He smiled wide to try and save himself but his mother's expression had not changed at all so as a last resort he added, "Please, please, please, don't ground me, mom! Technically I mean, you can't ground me, because what if Master Yen Sid calls on me and Riku again?"

"What-!"

"King Mickey did say he might call on us at any time, and if that happened I'd have to go so I couldn't be grounded what if I was grounded when he called, mom? What if?"

"Sora," His mother's harsh tone kept him from losing any more word vomit and Sora instead stared directly at her, fiddling with the straps on his pants as he awaited judgment. "First of all, why would this master person need to call on you again?"

Sora shrugged, "I don't know, the King just said he might call on us at any time."

"At any time?" She asked.

Sora nodded.

Slowly, she sat back against the couch, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. Sora stood in front of her. The wooden coffee table that Riku's uncle had carved for them one Christmas separated them by several feet and Sora was glad for it because he had a feeling that up close he'd be able to see every dangerous punishment flicker past his mother's eyes as she thought of them one by one.

"Well," she finally said. "I wasn't going to ground you, for your information." Sora felt himself deflate and for a moment thought he might collapse right onto their giant whicker rug. "However," She held up a finger. "Should this Master person call on you again like you're saying, I expect weekly letters. I mean it Sora. Every week, I don't care how busy you are because if you miss one week I'll be coming after you myself and I'll be giving this Master Yed Sin a piece of my mind, if he thinks he can just whisk my son right out of my life with no warning at all and not make him write home to let his own mother know where he is, if he's safe, if he's even still alive-," at this point Sora's mom had taken on a somewhat manic tone and her neck was doing that thing where it seemed to extend several inches every time she put emphasis on a word. Sora wisely decided not to correct her on Master Yen Sid's name. Eventually she finished, huffing, "Do you hear me Sora? What did I just say?"

Sora swallowed and said, "Write letters every week or else you're going to beat up Master Yen Sid. Got it."

She eyed him for a moment and then said, "You're darn right I will," and nodded to herself.

After Sora once again felt secure in his own freedom, he relaxed back into the old routine of chatting his mom up in the kitchen while she made dinner. This time he figured it was his turn to ask her what she had been doing for the past two years, and she told him this and that about work at the local clinic. The best story involved some guy who had come in with a fishhook stuck through his nipple. Sora grimaced in grotesque fascination as his mother talked about assisting the doctor who had removed it. He wisely didn't ask how the fishhook had gotten there.

When they had both finished dinner, Sora mentioned meeting Kairi and Riku at Rico's and his mom waved him off with a smile and a warning about staying out past eleven without calling. Sora promised to be home by ten at the latest then ran upstairs to change out of the magical clothes the fairy god mothers had given him and into something more casual appropriate since he doubted he'd be fighting any heartless at Rico's (he sure hoped he wouldn't be…).

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Riku got as far as Nana's old dirt driveway before he froze. It wasn't fear so much as a sense of self-preservation that stopped him. Riku didn't go up to Nana's front door and step inside for the same reason a person wouldn't jump in front of a bus or stick their hand in a wood chipper. Instead, Riku stood there for maybe a minute, turned, and walked calmly away. He managed not to think about anything for a good while. He walked the old path to the school building out of habit more than nostalgic desire and when he arrived at the front gates, he turned around and walked to the old park that he and Sora, and later Kairi, used to play at before they were old enough to row to the play island by themselves.

He thought about sitting on the swings but then remembered that one summer when he and Sora had lost a bet to Selphie and were forced to watch 5 straight hours of her favorite teen drama show wherein every character sat and thought pensively on a swing set no less than once per episode. Riku decided to sit on the edge of the sandbox instead.

By the time night had fully settled around him and Riku was having a hard time keeping his mind blank, he came to the realization that he didn't actually want to spend the night in a sandbox. With a great amount of effort, he stood up and forced himself back down the path he came from, towards the other end of the island.

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Rico's was the small, slightly rundown pizza shop near the center of town. Everyone had started going a year ago to harass Wakka when he had been hired on as a server. Eventually the habit became ritual and Wakka requested Wednesday nights off so he could hang with them instead of serve them. Sora had to hear about all of it from Kairi and for the first time he thought about the fact that his friends did actually go on with their lives even when he wasn't around to be there for it.

It made him feel out of place, even when Selphie ran up and threw her arms around him before he'd even gotten through the front door. It made him wonder how much more of their lives he'd miss when Master Yen Sid inevitably called on him and Riku, even though Wakka and Tidus spent the better part of 30 minutes filling him in on every minute detail of their time spent apart. Mostly it made him wish Riku would show his stupid face sometime soon so he wouldn't have to do this alone, even though Kairi was with him the whole time.

Riku never showed. Sora found that he wasn't surprised by this, and even without Riku, Sora had fun. He laughed and fell into the rhythm of his friend's jokes with more ease than he had expected to, but everything felt just a little bit off. They spent the better part of two hours telling stories and Sora did a lot of skirting around the topic of what he was calling his "years spent abroad", painting himself as a spectator on the sidelines of his own adventure rather than the centerpiece of it. He made some excuse for Riku's absence and avoided talking about his role in their travels completely, telling everyone the half-truth that he and Riku didn't really meet up until the very end.

Eventually, Rico's started to close but Wakka's boss let them stay until she had to countdown the register before she kicked them all out. They loitered for several minutes on the street, saying goodbye, and Sora had to promise on Riku's behalf that he would show up next week for sure, which pacified them until Wakka said, "Hold on a minute. If he thinks he can sit around on this island for a week and not make his rounds, he's got another thing comin', ya?"

Murmurs of agreement echoed from Tidus and Selphie so Sora grinned and said, "Don't worry, I'll force him out of hiding. Maybe the weekend?"

"You better!" Selphie put her hands on her hips.

"Give us a call when he's ready, brudda." Wakka said.

"I will!" Sora said, and then there was a chorus of 'see you later's and 'bye's as Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka started the other way down the street. Sora turned to Kairi, "Shouldn't you be going with them? Your house is all the way across town."

She smiled and clasped her hands behind her back. "I thought I'd walk you home."

"Aww,"

"I'm a romantic like that," she said, and Sora laughed as they fell into step.

It was much easier talking to Kairi alone than it had been talking to the group and as they walked Sora remembered how much he had missed her. She filled him in on the last of what he had missed, warned him about the school work he'd have to make up and snickered at the faces of disgust and dread that he made. She also informed him of a change in the nature of a certain ongoing bet that Sora couldn't honestly believe was still ongoing.

Before the Islands had been swallowed by darkness, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie, (and even a few of the other kids at school) all had a running bet over who would kiss who first. Bets could be cast on Riku, Sora, or Kairi in any possible combination. They had all been aware of this and good naturedly had fun with it. Mostly the three of them discussed future plans to put their own bet in via a third party and then turn the tables on their friends by ending the bet with whichever kiss got them the most munny out of it, but apparently after Kairi came back to the islands she had herself officially taken out of the running.

Sora's initial reaction was curiosity. In the past, Kairi had always been eager to tip the betting pools by play flirting with either Sora or Riku in front of one of their friends. Back then Sora had always sort of thought that he and Kairi would end up together, and he remembered one day specifically when he and Riku had even gotten into a fight over it because apparently Riku had thought he would be the one to end up with Kairi. Now the thought of fighting with Riku over something so dumb made him cringe.

After he asked her why she'd taken her name out of the betting, Kairi looked pensive for a while, hands clasped behind her back. A cold wind blew in from the ocean and Sora watched goose bumps rise on Kairi's arms and felt them on his own. He thought about before they had left the island when the idea of goose bumps on Kairi's soft skin would have made his stomach squirm in that weirdly pleasant sort of way, but now it just made him feel calm, contented by the mere fact that Kairi was right here next to him. Then he thought that maybe he already knew the answer to his question.

"I guess…" Kairi began, then huffed, and started again. "When the Islands reformed and you and Riku still didn't come home, I hated being left behind. I was so scared to be alone."

"Kairi…"

She turned to smile at him, and kept going. "Even when my memories of you were lost, I was still scared, I just didn't know why. I was so desperate to find you and Riku that I was ready to tear off looking for you before I even remembered who you were." She covered her mouth and laughed at this like it was funny, but Sora's chest felt tight. "Anyway, after I came back I realized something."

"What?" Sora asked.

"That I don't want to depend on you or Riku anymore." She laughed again when Sora looked at her with what was probably a more affronted expression than he meant to give. "Don't worry," she said. "You guys are still my best friends. But I want to be able to stand on my own, too. And I definitely don't want to pick between the two of you just because our friends want us to play some stupid game. So, from now on I'm officially off the market!" She put her hands on her hips as she said this and smirked at him in a way that made her seem much older than she had ever seemed before. "That's why I told Wakka to take me out of the betting."

"Huh," Sora said. To be honest, he didn't entirely get it. The idea that she felt like she had to stand apart from him and Riku didn't make much sense to him. He had a feeling there was more to it than just that, but he believed Kairi when she said that was what she needed, and a strangely large part of him felt relieved so he smiled back at her and said, "That's awesome Kairi! But don't forget, Riku and I will always be here in case you need us!"

Kairi skipped forward a step and said, "I know," then she giggled and turned around, walking backwards in front of Sora. "Hey Sora, you know what this means right?"

"Uh…?" Sora shook his head and smiled sheepishly.

"Now that I'm not in the bet anymore, it's just you and Riku." Then she winked at him in an extremely over dramatic fashion and said, "I told Wakka to put my money on Riku."

"Wha-! No way, Kairi!" Sora puffed his cheeks at her and crossed his arms. "I'll definitely kiss Riku first!" Then he fished around in the deep pockets of his shorts for a minute until he pulled out his wallet. "Tell Wakka that you changed your mind and you're putting this munny on me." He shoved a handful of munnny at Kairi who laughed and took it.

"Are you sure Sora? I think Riku may be working up to it now that he's back." She said.

"I'm positive. There's no way I'll let Riku kiss me first!"

"Okay," Kairi sang the word and zipped the munny up in her purse, then she sighed and said, "So, he didn't come tonight."

"Yeah…" Sora kept his eyes on the ground, looking for any big rocks along the dirt path that he might satisfactorily kick.

"Do you think something went wrong?"

Sora sucked in a deep breath and held it. "I don't know," he said. "I don't think so." He spied a rock near the edge of the path but measured its distance too far to kick without making him look stupid or tripping. "His Nana and Uncle are like my family too, you know? I can't imagine them not accepting him anymore, even if he did tell them the whole truth. I think maybe Riku just didn't want to come…"

Kairi turned and paused a moment to let Sora catch up to her so she could walk beside him again. "I guess you're right," she said. "Nana always did forgive Riku for everything, he never really got punished. Remember that time he locked you in the shack and told everybody you were in quarantine because you had some horrible, contagious disease?"

A loud groan escaped Sora's throat. "Riku is such a jerk!" He said, finally finding a good rock to kick and kicking it with extreme force. "I had totally forgotten about that! And then he said that the disease was being lame! Give me my munny back, Kairi, I'm never kissing that guy!"

Kairi laughed loudly. "Nuh-uh, Sora. My third party betting operation is non-refundable. He never even got in trouble for that, and you were in there for a couple hours at least because it took me a while to row back to the Islands and tell Nana about it." Then she said, "Riku used to be kind of mean, huh?"

"Used to be?" Sora huffed. "He's still mean!"

"Not that much," Kairi said.

"Did you forget already?" Sora gestured wildly with his hands. "He said he'd chose death over being exiled with us today!"

Kairi laughed. "So he's still pretty rude, he really has changed though."

Sora sighed through his nose. "Yeah," just beyond the corner, across the street Sora could see the slightly bowed palm tree in front of his bedroom window by the side yard. They walked the rest of the way in silence and parted at the cross street with an easy goodbye and a painfully tight hug, as was Kairi's standard.

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When he closed the door and announced his arrival Sora could hear his mother in the kitchen with the sink running. She called back, "Take out the trash would you, Sora?"

"Ugh!" Sora said. "You've been waiting all night for me to get home so you don't have to do it, haven't you!"

Her laughter echoed through the house. "It's in the laundry room, thanks honey!"

With another loud grumble Sora tromped past the living room and the kitchen, toward the laundry room which lead outside to the back alley behind their house. His mom had condensed the garbage into one bag, but it was huge, and Sora thought briefly about carrying it over his shoulder like Santa Claus's bag of presents, but decided against it at the risk of anything inside leaking on him. Instead he hefted it up with both hands and carried it as far ahead of him as he could, through the garage, down the driveway, and out to the waiting can by the back fence. It wasn't until Sora had managed to haul the bag into his trash that he noticed someone sitting on the other side of it.

"Riku!" Sora let the lid slam shut. Riku stayed still, arms resting across his pulled up knees, hair covering most of his face. "Um, why are you sitting next to my trash can?"

There was a moment of silence and then Riku took a deep breath and said, "This is where I belong, Sora. In the trash."

"Well technically you're next to the trash, so," Sora opened the lid back up. "Climb in, Riku, your new home is waiting."

Riku glared up at him, eyes barely visible through his long bangs. Then he stood up and for one brilliant moment Sora thought he was actually going to climb into the trash can, but Riku stopped in front of him and said, "Can I crash here tonight?"

"Sure," the lid bounced close. "Did something go wrong with Nana and your uncle?"

"…not exactly."

"Did you even go see them, Riku?"

Riku's eyes slid to the side. He didn't answer.

"Don't worry," Sora said and grabbed Riku's wrist. "You can go see them tomorrow." Sora only had to tug a little bit to get Riku walking back toward the house with him.

He only barely heard the muttered, "thanks, Sora" that Riku gave afterwards.

Once they were inside, Sora asked, "Were you really just going to sit out there by my trashcan all night long?" He let go of Riku's wrist to lock the door behind them.

"No, I was planning to wait until your mom went to sleep and then sneak into your room."

"Just like old times?" Sora grinned.

Riku returned it in the form of a small, mostly pitiful smile. "Pretty much,"

"You know mom loves you, I don't know why you're always sneaking around like a creep, Riku."

As if on cue, Sora's mother's voice wandered in from the kitchen, "Is that Riku I hear in my laundry room?" She appeared in the doorway with a towel in her hands, drying them absently until her eyes landed on Riku at which point she gasped and flung the towel in a random direction – it landed on the shelf next to the soap. "Riku! Look at you, you're so tall!"

Sora grumbled under his breath and moved to the side as his mom swept forward to throw her arms around Riku's neck. He had to bend down to hug her back, he was nearly two heads taller than her. "Hey, Taiyo,"

"Oh, Riku! Sora's right, you've gotten so big and handsome!" She let go and said, "Are you staying the night?"

"Handsome."

Riku looked to Sora and Sora pointed dramatically at his mother, "I said buff mom! I said buff! Big and buff!"

Taiyo laughed loudly and swatted her hand at Sora, reaching blindly for the towel she'd thrown with her other arm. "Whatever you said, the point came across loud and clear."

Sora grumbled again and Riku said, "Yeah, I'm staying,"

"Good," Taiyo finally snagged the towel, "Well dinner's all put away but help yourself to the leftovers, there's plenty." Then she folded her arms and said, "You boys remember the rules?"

"No loud voices after midnight," Riku said and Sora saw a fond smile sneak across his face.

"No sneaking out or you'll sic Nana on us," Sora said.

"Put all blanket forts away in the morning,"

"And don't hang them from the ceiling fans!"

A soft cooing noise came from Taiyo before she opened her arms and said, "oh my boys!" and came in for another hug, this time enveloping both of them into her short, thin arms.

"Mom!" Sora groaned. Riku stayed silent, but Sora caught his glance behind his mom's back and smiled at him. Eventually Taiyo let them go and they wandered upstairs to Sora's room.

"Handsome?" Riku said again when they got to the top of the stairs.

"I said buff, Riku!"

"So I'm not handsome? I'm just buff." Riku asked.

"You're a big good looking jerk, is what you are." Sora said

Riku laughed and it caught Sora off guard. He hadn't heard Riku laugh since before the fight with Xemnas. It felt like such a long time ago but it had really only been a couple days. The laughter stopped abruptly when Riku nearly tripped on the straps of Sora's magical uniform which had been abandoned in the doorway of his room.

"Your room is a mess."

"Give me a break, Riku, I've only been home for a day!"

"So this is how you left it?" Riku said.

Sora stopped in the doorway of his room. "Yeah, I guess…" His clothes were still strewn across the floor, a pair of pants, a shirt, socks, all of them probably too small for him now. His dad's old fishing gear was still stacked up next to the door and the model airship they had built together hung from the ceiling.

"Is that the creepy box doll you made for your science class," Riku asked, gesturing to a cardboard mannequin propped up in front of Sora's dresser.

"Hey, yeah!" Sora ran over to it and grabbed its disturbingly long arm. He waved it at Riku who grimaced in response. "Come on, Riku, it loves you!"

"The feeling is not mutual," Riku said.

Sora stuck his tongue out, then stood up. "I guess Mom just left all my stuff like it was." The bed looked made, though. Sora figured his mom probably changed the sheets after he came home. He smiled at it and said, "You'll need to borrow some PJ's, Riku."

Riku watched him from the door way, a bemused smile on his lips. "I don't know how to tell you this, Sora." He said. "You're pajama's aren't going to fit me."

"Ha ha ha, Riku you are so funny." With a gentle shove, Sora strode past him and into the hallway. "You can borrow my dad's, Mom keeps some of his old stuff in the attic." He said, reaching for the draw string to the attic stairs. It was just barely too high and Sora was about to jump for it, but Riku's hand suddenly came out of nowhere and grabbed it for him. Sora just barely kept himself from shooting Riku a dirty look because he could have gotten it.

Riku seemed completely ignorant of Sora's impressive strength of will and carried on as usual, as if no one's stature had been slighted in any way. "Is that okay? For me to wear your dad's stuff?" he asked, unfolding the stairs.

"Yeah," Once they were securely in place, Sora started up the wooden ladder steps, then stopped and turned to look at Riku. "Unless you'd rather wear one of Mom's nightgowns?"

Riku stared at him. "I'd rather sleep naked."

"Than wear my dad's pajamas?" Sora asked.

"Than wear your mom's nightgown!"

"Oh," Sora started up the stairs. "I mean you can sleep naked if you want Riku, I've seen it all before."

"I'm not sleeping naked, Sora!"

"Well if you change your mind-,"

"I won't!"

Sora laughed. He didn't even have to turn around to imagine Riku's face, perfectly enraged and perfectly red behind his too-long bangs.

All of his dad's old things were kept in the attic. A lot of it they got rid of after his ship disappeared, but some of his clothes and a few memorabilia were stored away in boxes. Mostly it was just old furniture, some things that Sora's dad had carved himself, and some things that he'd worked on with Riku's uncle. Some of it was probably worth some decent munny but Taiyo never wanted to sell any of it. His dad's clothes were kept in airtight bins on the far wall that Sora's mom had bought especially for them to keep out bugs. Sora had a feeling she was saving them for when he got older and could fit into them but at this rate he had his doubts about whether or not that day would ever come. In the meantime at least Riku would get some use out of them.

Sora found the ugliest pair of island print pajama pants he could and a shirt that read "Destiny Island Dude" in obnoxious matching themed print across the front of it and tossed them at Riku.

He had to reach to catch them but he did and then he groaned and said, "Sora," in the same tone of voice that used to he say "Nana," when he was younger and trying to get out of his chores.

Sora held up his hands. "They were his favorite pair, Riku."

Riku mumbled something about Sora's dad being a wannabe-tourist then said, "Fine, fine, I just want to go to sleep," and turned around to head back down the stairs.

Sora followed him, watching the way his hair bounced up and down on each step and fighting the urge to reach out and grab the ends of it.

They brushed their teeth side by side in the bathroom across the hall, making faces at each other in the mirror. Riku still had a spare toothbrush left under Sora's sink. Afterwards they took turns showering because even though it was late and Sora was pretty sure they were both ready to pass out, finding time to wash while saving the worlds was tough and falling into the ocean earlier that day didn't exactly count.

Sora sat on his bed, mind numb the whole time Riku showered and when Riku came back into his room, towel draped around his shoulders and wet hair a shade darker than usual – more gun metal gray than silver – Sora just stood up and walked past him, smiling a little and getting one in return as he headed to the bathroom. He heard the tell tail whoosh and grunt of Riku falling face first onto his bed behind him.

By the time Sora got out of the shower, Riku was one-hundred percent passed out, hair splayed in a tangle across Sora's pillow. He was laying on his stomach, with his face at the edge of the bed and his arms cradling his chest. Sora crouched in front of him and studied Riku's face. He thought back to just before darkness had swallowed the Islands. He remembered laying on the round fleece rug in Riku's room, next to his bed. They weren't doing anything so much as just passing time together – waiting out a heat wave indoors, some song playing barely audible on Riku's radio.

Back then Riku had been different. Riku always thought before he spoke, but it seemed like when they were kids he didn't think quite so much. That meant he ended up being a little mean sometimes, but wondering about the reasons for why Riku wasn't like that anymore sort of hurt.

Sora had a vivid memory of Riku leaning over the edge of his bed, watching Sora laugh at something he had said with a smile on his face so wide Sora thought his cheeks might split. Sometimes Sora felt stupid for not cherishing Riku's smile when he was younger. Sure, Riku still smiled, but it was nothing like it used to be. Sora thought he would give just about anything to see Riku smile like that again.

With a deep breath, Sora blew on Riku's face and watched his brows furrow and his nose crinkle. As Sora was inhaling his second breath, Riku's eyes peeked through his lashes and he said. "Don't even think about it." Sora laughed and Riku said, "Jerk," and rolled over to make room for him.

It was a bit of a struggle to pull the covers out from underneath Riku but after a few hefty tugs, Riku finally succumbed with a sigh and sat up so they could both get under them. Sora leaned over him to undo the latch on his window and shove the large panes open. A cool breeze hit him right in the face and it carried a salty scent that mingled perfectly with the smell of shampoo and clean sheets. He had to swallow the nostalgia that rose somewhere deep in his throat and threatened to choke him.

With a small sigh he fell backwards onto the bed, landing half on Riku's shoulder.

"Ow," Riku said. "Sora your bed is too small." Then, "You should sleep on the floor."

"You sleep on the floor," Sora said.

Riku groaned and shrugged his shoulder out from beneath Sora's, but didn't respond beyond that. They were quiet and after a while Sora thought maybe Riku had fallen asleep again, but then he spoke so softly Sora could barely hear him over the white noise of waves rising and falling outside. "What do you think my parents would say?"

"About what?" Sora asked and breathed in a particularly cool wind as it rolled through his window and brushed his cheeks and nose. When Riku didn't answer, Sora hit him in the stomach with the back of his hand and repeated himself.

The sheets of Sora's unkempt bed rustled next to him and he turned to Riku who had folded his hands over his stomach, trapping Sora's hand beneath them. "About me."

"They'd be proud of you. Duh." Sora aimed to grab one of Riku's hands with his, but only managed to snag a finger. He squeezed it in reassurance anyway.

"Would they? I mean, yeah, maybe I helped save our world, but it was my fault that our world needed saving in the first place."

"Riku…" Sora smacked him in the stomach again.

He grunted and said with a tinge of annoyance, "Ow, Sora."

"First of all, if you hadn't opened the door to our world, someone else probably would have. Maybe even me!"

"Yeah, but-" Another smack. "Sora, stop it."

"Second of all," Sora took a breath and felt around on Riku's stomach for his hand. It was resting near his hip. Sora squeezed it and said, "You remember that one time I kept a peach under my bed because it was furry like a little animal and mom wouldn't let me get a pet?"

Riku groaned loudly. "I remember you trying to make me eat it."

Sora laughed.

"It wasn't funny Sora."

"Well that spring when it started to become one with my floor and I had all those ants and bugs in my room, I had to clean it out and spray all the bugs myself and when I was done my mom said," Sora inhaled preparing to imitate his mother's soft spoken soprano tone, "Sora I'm not happy that you let a peach rot for three months under your bed."

Riku snickered at him.

"But I'm proud of you for facing the consequences, taking responsibility, and cleaning it up." Sora squeezed his hand again. "I think your parents would probably say something like that."

Riku was silent for nearly a whole minute, then he said, "Thanks, Sora," almost as quietly as he'd started the conversation.

Sora grinned at him.

{}{}{}{}

That morning, Sora woke up with his head planted firmly on the carpet of his room. His arms stretched out in front of him on the floor, chest and legs still on the bed, with only a tiny strip of blanket covering his knees. The rest of him was exposed to the chilly air from outside, a light drizzle plunking softly on the panes of his open window. Despite this, Sora was quite warm, possibly because some big jerk next to him had slowly enacted a hostile takeover of Sora's bed throughout the night and was now pressed up against his side, breath coming out in soft, warm puffs across Sora's ribs.

With a grunt, Sora pushed himself up on his hands so he could look behind him only to see that a large portion of the bed was completely empty behind Riku. "Hey!" Sora hefted his weight to one hand and swatted at Riku's head with the other. "Move over!"

Riku groaned and batted at Sora's hand like it was a mosquito buzzing in his ear.

"You pushed me out of the bed, jack wad! Move over!"

"What'd you call me?" Riku's voice was muffled by Sora's shirt.

"I called you a jack wad because that's what you are: a jacked up wad!"

"Wad of what," Riku mumbled, but finally rolled onto his other side, creating a sliver of space on the bed for Sora to push himself back onto.

"Garbage." Sora said.

Then Riku made a stuttered noise of distress. "Sora, you're lying on my hair."

Sora echoed the noise and sat up, scooping up the silver strands of hair streaked across his pillow and wrapping them around Riku's head until they covered his face almost entirely. Riku responded by sighing.

"Do you think it's weird that your hair kept growing even when you were in Ansem's body?" Sora asked, too awake now to even pretend he was going to go back to sleep.

Riku moved his hair away from his face and said, "It didn't."

"What?"

"It didn't grow while I was in Ansem's body. It was already this long before." Riku's voice sounded flat and Sora had a feeling this was a conversation that could wait for later.

So Sora said, "Well forget about that, then. You've got to get to Nana's before noon hits and she starts seeing clients." Riku groaned loudly and rolled onto his stomach, obscuring his face from view. "Come on, Riku! You can't put it off forever. My mom already knows you're back, imagine how much madder Nana will be if she finds out you didn't go see her first thing?"

"I hate it when you make sense," Riku said and pushed himself up on his hands.

"Don't worry," Sora swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "I'll go with you so if you mess anything up, just run out of Nana's house yelling and I'll be right behind you. We'll live on the play island if we have to." He said and began rummaging through his dresser drawers for a shirt that might still fit him.

"Sora…" From the bed, Riku was pinning him with a stare, hair falling over his shoulders tangled and glimmering in the morning light. The neck of his t-shirt hung low and Sora could see the smooth plane of his chest through it, almost down his stomach.

"What?" Sora said, because Riku was still staring at him and it felt like it had been too long but Sora wasn't really sure because Sora had kind of been staring back.

"Nothing," Riku shook his head and his hair shifted out of the sun, regressing back to its usual dull gray. "Never mind."

Sora squinted. "Are you sure it's not something?"

Riku laughed and said, "Nah," crawling off the bed to find his clothes. A small smile stayed on his lips though.

"Were you about to say something sappy?" Sora asked right before a shirt hit him in the face. It was his dad's, the one he lent Riku last night, which meant that he averted his gaze from it just in time to see Riku shrugging into his tank top vest.

"No way," Riku said, "You're the sap, remember?"

"Ahuh," Sora returned to his dresser. "Sure, Riku. Whatever you say."

{}{}{}{}

Everything looked the same when they got to Nana's, except Riku's key didn't open the front door and no one answered their knocking. When they went around the side of the house and peered into the kitchen window (well, Riku peered, Sora was just a hair too short to see through without having to jump) there were boxes stacked on the kitchen table and all the old pottery was gone from glass cabinets across the hall.

Riku spent five to ten minutes sitting on the front steps with his head in his hands in silent mortification and Sora didn't really know what to do besides petting Riku's back and insisting that they go see his Uncle Joe before jumping to any conclusions. For the most part Riku ignored him until a pick-up truck rolled slowly up the gravel drive way. They both looked up. A car door on the opposite side of the truck slammed and Riku's uncle walked around the hood, stopping in his tracks when he saw the two of them huddled on the front steps.

"Riku?" he said.

Riku stood up immediately and it was only then that Sora realized how heavily he had been leaning on Riku because he was nearly thrown into the fern bushes by the sudden movement. "Where's Nana?" Riku asked

"I think the better question is where have you been?" As Riku's uncle approached them, Sora noticed how much larger his bald spot had gotten and the lines around his mouth that hadn't been there two years ago. He wondered if Riku saw them too. "It's been…. You just disappeared, Riku. Where did you go? And Sora. Were you with him?"

A response was on the tip of Sora's tongue when Riku said, "I want to talk to Nana." Then the terseness fell entirely from his voice and his head dipped slightly downward. "I'm – I'll explain everything then, to both of you."

Uncle Joe eyed him for a moment and then slowly pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, "Sure," he said. "I'll give you a ride back to my place. I was just stopping by to pick up some boxes but that can wait." He waved them towards the car as he turned around. "Nana's fine, but she had a fall a few weeks ago. We decided it would be better if she moved in with us. Now that the twins are away at school we've got a little more space." He looked up at Riku as he rounded the car. "I suppose we'll be making room for two instead of one, huh?" And he laughed and smiled. Sora watched Riku try to return it and winced slightly as he shimmied across the front seat at how painful it looked.

{}{}{}{}

Riku's aunt was sitting on a lawn chair in the front yard with four small children running in circles around her when they pulled into his uncle's driveway. She pushed her sunglasses up onto her head with a curious expression as soon as they parked and when she saw Riku get out of the passenger's side of the truck she fumbled to stand up but nearly tripped over one of the small children. Ignoring the whining cries of "Mom!" behind her, she ran for Riku at full speed. Riku was barely out of the car before her arms were around him and as soon as she caught sight of Sora still inside the car, she reached over Riku's shoulder and grabbed a fistful of his collar, dragging him forward into the hug.

Sora's mom and Riku's aunt had been childhood best friends, along with Riku's mom. Nana used to tell Sora and Riku stories about how their mom's would roam the island when they were little as a gang of three and beat up bullies they caught picking on other kids, and that's why Riku and Sora were raised to be such kind hearted and adventurous children. Sora used to always think that Nana was lying to them until he had asked his mom about it one day and she showed him the child's jacket she still had with a wayfinder (their gang symbol of choice) embroidered onto the back of it.

Eventually Riku's aunt let go of them and ushered Riku inside. Sora opted to stay and watch the kids, giving Riku what he hoped was an encouraging thumbs up when he saw the desperate look Riku threw over his shoulder at the threshold of the house. This was, unfortunately, one battle that Sora couldn't help him with. Plus, if given the choice between emotional family drama and playing with small children in a kiddie pool, Sora would choose the kiddie pool every time.

{}{}{}{}

"Sora?" Sora was soaking wet by the time Nana came to the front door and said his name. Two of the four children had him pinned over the pool, crushing its plastic lip beneath his shoulders and his hip. Most of the water had spilled out of it by this point. The other two children were dancing nearby and chanting, "sacrifice him!" before Nana appeared. Sora couldn't believe that only two years ago the youngest had been a cute, bashful four year old, barely able to speak full sentences. "Would you come inside for a moment, Dear?"

The children released Sora immediately and he leapt to his feet. "Sure!" he said, wringing out his shirt as he jogged across the front lawn.

Riku's uncle came out of the house behind Nana muttering, "I guess I'll watch the kids then."

When they passed each other, Sora said to him, "They need a human sacrifice to complete their unholy ritual. Don't disappoint them."

Uncle Joe gulped loudly and then ruffled Sora's hair when Sora grinned at him.

Riku's uncle's house was similarly designed to his Nana's, but a little bit bigger with two extra bedrooms and one extra bathroom. The front of the house was exactly the same, though: living room on the right, kitchen on the left, entryway in the middle. Riku and his aunt were both in the living room, seated at opposite ends of the sectional sofa, Riku with his elbows on his knees, one knee bouncing uncontrollably, and his Aunt with her hands in her lap and a concerned expression on her face. The sunglasses she had been wearing were still pushed up into her hair. Nana stood next to Sora and it was only now that he noticed he was taller than her. Before he'd left they had been the exact same height.

"Sora," Nana said. "We've all heard Riku's side of things. But something tells me we didn't get quite the whole story. Would you mind filling us in?"

"Uh," Sora's eyes locked briefly with Riku's and he could physically feel the urgency with which Riku was trying to tell him something using advanced telekinesis but Sora just was not picking it up. "Sure," he said, and smiled brightly at Nana. There wasn't really anything to worry about. Just because Riku was tense beyond belief didn't mean that Sora had to be. Things would work out for the best no matter what Riku thought, Sora was sure of it.

Nana returned his smile and went to sit down on the couch between Riku and his aunt. Sora followed her, sitting a little bit closer to Riku than he did to Nana. "So," she began. "Riku tells us he opened some door somewhere which unleashed a darkness onto our island that blinked us out of existence for up to a year. Is that true?"

"Well, y-yeah-,"

"And after that, you, Riku, and Kairi were separated, but Riku found and kidnapped Kairi and agreed to help some witch kidnap eleven other girls so that she could unlock some other door and-,"

"Wait, wait, wait," Sora held his hands out and Nana stopped and folded her hands in her laps. "Um," behind him the couch shifted when Riku stiffened. "All of that is technically true, but Riku was only doing it to help Kairi. She had lost her heart and was in a coma. He made some bad choices, yeah, but his intentions were good, and after Kairi did get her heart back Riku sacrificed himself to help bring the Islands back, too!"

The wrinkles on Nana's face deepened as she scowled. "Well," She said, peering behind Sora at Riku. "He conveniently left that part out."

"That's not all he did either! He spent a year helping me get my memories back, keeping me safe while I was asleep, and then afterwards we fought Xemnas together!" Sora said, hands balling into excited fists. "Uh, Xemnas was a bad guy." He added. "Riku may have done some bad stuff, but the good stuff he's done definitely out weighs it!"

"Is that so?" Nana said.

"It sure is!" Sora said. "But, if you have to punish him, make sure you tell him to apologize for that time he locked me in the shack too."

"Hey-!"

Riku's protest was cut off by Nana's laughter. "Well in that case," With some obvious effort, she stood up and shuffled past Sora. "Riku," she said, looking down at him with her hands on her hips. Riku glanced up with the sort of expression that Sora figured he'd wear if he were looking into the face of death. Slowly, Nana leaned down, hands coming to rest on Riku's shoulders. "You're a good boy. I don't quite understand what all this has been about, and I expect a more detailed explanation later, but it sounds like all you did was what you thought was right at the time, which is all anyone can expect you to do."

Riku ducked his head, remaining more or less completely immobile as Nana hugged him. Sora found himself mentally resisting the urge to hug Riku after Nana let him go. It was a sudden and furious impulse but Sora triumphantly conquered it, watching instead as Riku got another hug from his aunt who then said, "Next time call us first, Riku. If you do something really bad, we'll need time to organize your alibi and hide bodies."

Riku made a choking noise at that and muttered, "I'll keep that in mind," it sounded like he wanted to say more but at that exact moment the kids burst through the front door screaming his name and Riku only had seconds to look hilariously alarmed before the children leapt on him. Sora started cackling while Riku's uncle apologized for not being able to reign them in and somewhere between Riku begging for help, one arm stretched across the couch toward Sora, and Uncle Joe prying the children off of Riku's chest, Nana invited Sora to stay for lunch and then dinner and some kind of normalcy broke through the reunion.

By the end of the night Riku had laughed a total of eight times at the faces Sora sent him across the dinner table and Sora's heart skipped a couple beats for every one of them (even while his ankles were being chewed on by the youngest of Riku's cousins). Everything felt sort of right and Sora had just stood up to go home after getting his butt kicked at old maid three times in a row when something big and tan waddled around Riku's front porch. "Is that…?" Sora leaned over the fence and locked eyes with a tubby dog of monstrous size just in time for her to turn her head and bay at him sassily as she hefted herself up the steps. "Rudy!" Sora quickly made his way around the table, pulling Riku and his chair out of the way in order to get to the dog.

"Hey-!" Riku said, standing up behind Sora. "She's my dog."

"Yeah but she likes me best." Sora knelt in front of Rudy with his hands out. She dutifully began licking them and only stopped when Riku put his hand on her head and ruffled her ears back and forth, at which point she began attempting to lick his hand as well. "Man your uncle really let her go. She's gotten so fat."

"I'll probably have to put her on a diet…" Riku sighed, grabbing her snout gently to keep her from licking. Somehow her tongue slipped through his fingers anyway and he laughed under his breath.

"You know what, Riku?"

"Huh?" Riku asked, now teasing Rudy with his fingers, pulling his hand away just before her tongue could catch it.

"I know you were worried about seeing Nana and your uncle again, but I'm glad everything turned out okay. You deserve for good stuff like that to happen. You deserve like ten awesome Nanas and twenty fat Rudys and a hundred cool keyblades, and every other good thing out there!" Sora said, nodding his head in self agreement, "But only one of me because I don't know if I could share you with someone else, even if it was another me."

Riku didn't say anything for a moment, but when Sora leaned forward he could see the hint of a smile on Riku's lips. After a minute he said, "I told you you were the sap."

{}{}{}{}

Three weeks later Sora was dusting the model airship his father had built with him just before he and Riku's parents had left the island when his mother called up from downstairs. "Sora, Riku's on the phone." and Sora had to use an undue amount of effort to calmly put the airship back on its stand before racing out of the room to grab the hallway phone.

"Hey, Riku!" He heard the click of his mother hanging up and then he heard multiple shrieks of mixed glee and horror, and Riku cursing.

Then Riku's level tone, "Let go of my leg or I'm going to kick you through a wall." Some mumbled baritone in the background that sounded vaguely chastising, more Riku, slightly hushed and definitely panicked this time, "Oh my god, how do they move so fast?" Yelling, "I'm gonna make Nana hex you if you don't cut it out, get off of the table!" There was a quiet snarl of outrage and then Riku said, "Hold on, Sora."

"Okay!"

After that all Sora heard was muffled banging and multiple small children whining Riku's name followed by Riku yelling, "No, if you can't behave like human beings, you don't get to eat like human beings! Go to school and starve!" a chorus of "that's not fair!" followed by Riku yelling "Tough." Several seconds of shuffling, and then finally a door slamming. Then the phone picked up again and Riku said, "Hey Sora, what's up?"

"Riku that was awesome! I wish I could have seen it!"

Riku groaned, "No you don't."

"You'll make a great dad someday, Riku."

"Shut up, Sora. Uncle Joe had to leave early and Nana's out vandalizing street corners with her gang, I had to get all of them all out of bed and into school appropriate clothing in less than half an hour. I thought about setting the house on fire and letting them burn upwards of five times." The receiver crackled when Riku huffed into it. "Listen," he said before Sora could respond. "Are you busy today?"

Sora didn't even need to think before saying, "No, why?" He knew his mom didn't need him, and anything he might have had planned paled wildly in comparison to the possibility of hanging out with Riku who had become something of a recluse since reuniting with Nana and his Uncle. Not that Sora didn't understand that, he was spending much more time at home than he used to as well, but after two years of missing Riku, Sora found himself needing to spend as much time with him as possible. He didn't want to push though, so most days he let Riku decide whether or not they were going to hang out (thankfully most days Riku decided that they were going to).

"Good," Riku said. "Because the kids are all at school – or daycare, and since nobody else is home, there's something I've been kind of meaning to show you…"

"Did you get me a present, Riku?" Sora asked, leaning one elbow on the hallway table and giving the wall a smug expression. Even though Riku couldn't see him, he probably heard it in Sora's voice.

"Not exactly." Riku said. "Well, maybe."

"Maybe? What kind of a present is a maybe present?" Sora frowned and stood up.

"It's conditional." Riku said.

"Conditional on what?"

"Just come over, Sora. You'll figure it out when you get here."

{}{}{}{}

Half an hour later, Sora found himself standing in front of Riku's unlocked front door. He tried knocking first but Riku didn't answer so Sora just went in (he'd never really been in the habit of knocking before entering Riku's house before, but he'd gotten into it since they came back and Sora walked in on Riku's aunt and uncle sucking face in the living room one day).

"Riku!" Sora called after being confronted by an empty foyer. The kitchen and living room looked mostly immaculate except for a blanket that had been left on the floor and a vase of flowers on the dining room table that was mysteriously missing its flowers. Despite being moderately impressed with the speed at which Riku must have cleaned up after the kids, he still felt Riku actually being home might have increased the quality of this so called surprise, so Sora yelled, "This present sucks!" down the empty hallway.

There was a distant and muffled, "in the backyard, Sora" that found its way to him through the screen door of the end of the hall and Sora made his way quickly to it. When he got outside, Riku was standing by the patio, a small wriggling thing in his arms, and his eyes strangely brighter than usual. "Sorry I couldn't get to the door, I figured it would be faster to-," Riku stopped talking and took a moment to survey Sora who had pressed himself against the siding of the house, mouth hanging open. "What?"

"Are you trying to kill me?" Sora sputtered, craning his neck forward like a giraffe reaching for tree leaves.

"What?"

"You cut your hair and you're holding a puppy, Riku!" He said, one hand thrown out in front of him and shaking angrily. "Give a guy a little warning!"

Riku laughed and the puppy in his arms squirmed. "Sorry."

"Yeah right," Sora pushed himself off the wall and looked Riku up and down. "Puppies are a great look on you Riku. Where did you get it?"

Riku smirked. "Remember how fat Rudy was?"

"Oh."

"Yeah," he hefted the puppy into one arm and it whined at him. "Come around back to the shed, she popped out an army of them." Then Riku put his free hand on Sora's shoulder and leaned down a little, his eyes startlingly visible below his short bangs. Sora had almost forgotten how bright they were and realized this was possibly the first time he had seen them without a blindfold or hair trying to cover them up. "Don't freak out."

Sora gulped and nodded, following Riku around the patio where his uncle kept their old wicker furniture set and the ancient barbeque that had helped feed countless birthday parties (not all of them Riku's).

"We cleared out half the shed for them since the kids can't be trusted with this many tiny animals in the house.

"Do I get one?" Sora asked, because honestly pretending that hadn't been the first question on his mind was a laughable joke. Might as well just get it out of the way now.

"You can have as many as you want, Sora."

A small sound of choked glee snuck out of Sora's throat before Riku added on, "As long as it's okay with your mom. That's the condition. Well, Nana's condition. If it were up to me I'd let you have all of them. Except for the one with the heart on its butt. Kairi already claimed that one."

Momentarily, Sora forgot the fact that the chances of his mom letting him take home one of Riku's puppies were below zero, and instead focused on the fact that, "You told Kairi before me?"

Riku had the audacity to laugh as he flipped the metal latch on the shed doors. "Only because I wanted to see your reaction in person when I told you about them, and because I had to wait until they were old enough to be played with because I figured you wouldn't be able to help yourself."

Riku was right of course, not that Sora would know. Every word after "reaction" was lost to him because at that very moment the euphoric sound of puppy yips filled the air and Sora rushed into the shed to find a small, collapsible wire frame cage around a carpet of tiny wriggling baby dogs. He could see soft matting poking out the edges of the cage, but looking down from above, absolutely none of it was visible between the mass of constantly moving puppy bodies, and of course, one giant Rudy body in the back looking at Sora with a little bit more venom than she usually did.

"I want them all." He said.

"You can probably have one or two," Riku answered and lowered the puppy in his arms down into the chaos. "That one's mine though."

"How many are there?"

"Fifteen,"

"Holy dang," Sora said, then reached around the side of the cage to pat Rudy's head. "I'm so sorry, Rudy."

"Yeah," Riku laughed, "She wasn't as excited about the last one as she was about the first."

When Sora was done giving his condolences to Rudy he reached down and picked up one of the little wigglers. It squealed at him and Sora bit his lip to keep from mocking it with undue enthusiasm. It was grey with a white stripe running up its nose and floppy ears and wrinkles all around its short stubby legs. He picked up another one with his other hand that was tan and white with blue eyes and a pink nose and shoved that one at Riku.

"You wear puppies like nobody's business." he said. "Cruella Deville has nothing on you, Riku." Sora reached down a picked up another puppy, "here take this one too."

Riku snorted and said "Sora," but took the puppy from him anyway.

"How many do you think you can hold at once?" Sora asked.

"Let's not push two." Riku said. "Which one do you want?"

"I can't just decide on the spot, Riku!" Sora lifted the puppy in his hands up to his face and gazed at it. It blinked and craned its little neck to lick his chin. "I need to evaluate every one of them before I can make an educated decision." He said, and cradled the puppy to his chest. "I'll have to come back later after I talk to mom to make the final call. I'll probably need to spend at least a day-"

"Hey." Riku said it in the tone he used when he was trying to imitate Nana. Sora didn't think he knew he was doing it most of the time which made it even funnier usually, but Riku had put both of his puppies back and was looking at Sora sort of seriously so Sora didn't laugh at him this time.

"What?"

Riku's expression melted into something fidgety and he said, "Uh," and took a step forward. "I've been meaning to, um…" He seemed to be reaching toward the puppy in Sora's arm so Sora prepared to give it to him but his hands stopped when they found the puppy's head and instead of taking it from him, Riku used it as an anchor to move even closer and after that he was kissing Sora right on the mouth before Sora even knew what was happening.

It was a dirty tactic, using a puppy to sneak into a kiss without Sora noticing. Sora was going to pull away and tell Riku just that, but then Sora thought about the fact that Riku was actually kissing him, and not as a spectacle for some bet they all had with their friends, but alone in a shed full of puppies in Riku's backyard. It occurred to Sora that that made this a different sort of kiss and the idea of kissing Riku for reasons other than to get back at their friends made him feel a little crazy in the good way when his stomach flip-flopped and he suddenly had the urge to fight a thousand heartless off all at once. But then Sora also realized that, technically this meant he had lost all that munny he gave to Kairi for the bet because Riku had kissed him first – was still kissing him, actually, Sora thought as he noticed Riku's hands move from the puppy's head to cup Sora's neck so hesitantly that Sora barely even felt them there.

Finally Riku's hands settled firmly on the conjunction of Sora's neck and shoulders, but when they did he pulled away and stammered something that was definitely not a language, then cleared his throat and said, "I didn't mean for that to last that long…. Sorry."

"Well I was going to tell you how rude it is to use a puppy as a diversion so you can kiss someone, but I got distracted so I guess its fine." Sora said. Then he said, "Wait," and put the puppy down carefully amongst its writhing brothers and sisters. "No it's not."

"Oh no," For a brief second Sora almost felt bad about how crushed Riku looked at that.

Instead of correcting any misconceptions, Sora said, "I had munny riding on that bet, Riku!"

"What…. Bet?"

"The bet!" Sora said and flung his arms out to the side.

"That's… still going on?"

"Yeah? Kairi took her name out that night you bailed on seeing Nana! I told her to put munny on me! I was gonna kiss you first!"

Riku stared at him and seemed to be trying to figure out what expression to put on his face. He settled for twitching and said, "Why didn't you tell me that?"

"I wasn't gonna tell you! There's only two of us left, you're the enemy now! For all I know you had munny riding on you!"

Then Riku's face fell into his hands and he mumbled Sora's name in a long, drawn out groan. He lifted his head and said, "Okay, wait, forget about the bet Sora. What about the kiss?"

Sora huffed and said, "What about it?"

Riku squinted at him. "Was it okay?"

Sora returned the expression mockingly. "Yeah? It was great, Riku. I was holding a puppy and we're best friends. It was probably the best first kiss in history. Now let's try to focus on the issue at hand here which is my munny!"

Riku's hand came up to rub at his forehead, "Look, Sora, your munny is fine. We'll just stage a second first kiss in front of everybody else later."

Sora thought about this for a moment, gazing into the pit of puppies beside him. "But I'll always know I lost..."

"Well, you have always been the slower of the two of us." Riku said, audacious enough to even smile as he spoke. Sora scowled at him. "Okay, maybe that was the wrong thing to say. What if I just kissed you again?"

"What if I kissed you!" Sora said.

Riku shrugged. "That's fine, too."

"Good! Because from now on I will be doing all of the kissing!"

"All of it?" Riku asked. He was in front of Sora again, close and breathing down on Sora's nose.

"Yeah, so I hope you enjoyed that because it was the first and last time you'll get to-hhrrrrmmmm!" Their second kiss was much shorter than the first. Riku broke away almost immediately to double over laughing at Sora's muffled scream and subsequent stony rage, but he didn't get to laugh long because as soon as Sora was over his horror at being kissed a second time he was storming up to Riku intent on kissing first and asking questions later.

In the back of his mind Sora wondered if maybe they shouldn't be making out in front of young, innocent puppies, but the thought was fleeting because the only thing he cared about more than puppies was Riku and by extension, kissing Riku.

{}{}{}

It was later that day, after many long hours of playing with puppies (and a few hours of kissing), when they were spending the sunset on the play island together that Kairi came running up from the shore with a bottled message from King Mickey and Master Yen Sid requesting their presence at the mysterious tower.