Title: Mistakes
Rating: PG
Pairings, if any: RikuSora & RikuKairi
Summary: Their first kiss had been a pure accident, their second, a wonderful disaster.
Word Count: 2189
Warnings: This so isn't that fluffy RikuSora I wanted to write. Expect that some time. Eventually. Maybe.
Post Kh2

A/N: For Resound on lj! I hoped I was being sneaky by asking what you liked, but I don't know if you figured it out. Anyway, this is a kind of thankyou for being such a great friend, and always so cheerful. Hope your 2008 is wonderful, love.

Their first kiss had been a pure accident. Both Sora and Riku were graceful and lithe and very light on their feet, and everyone knew that; perhaps the most important was that Kairi knew that. Kairi knew a lot of things, things that she couldn't tell Riku about Sora, and things that she couldn't tell Sora about Riku; those things were the things that would make all their lives easier, but the boys were juststupid of course.

(B-but, Kairi, you don't understand! Sora cried, kicking his way though the surf, muttering curses that he'd learned from Captain Jack Sparrow while Kairi herself stood there watching him. He doesn't—he loves you, he doesn't like me like that. All I am to him is a-- a. I don't even know!)

(Kairi, it's sweet you're trying to help, Riku said with a wry smile, brushing his fingers through her hair gently, tucking it behind her ears, a brother's, not a lover's gesture, not quite. The girl didn't smile back exactly, a sad look on her face as she listened. But he loves you. He spent…god, Kairi, he spent so much of his life looking for you, trying to save you from me for some of it. He's better off with you, not me. I won't…I wouldn't ever date him I couldn't love him like that. Not with where we live, not when there's someone better out there for him, not…I just can't.

I- Kairi tried to protest, but Riku only hugged her, thankfully stifling her before she blurted out But Sora loves you too! He loves me like his sister, I know i-!)

Their first kiss hadn't been between Sora and Kairi, or Riku and Kairi, like their mothers and fathers and siblings had been hoping for. Their first kiss had been by pure accident, born of a slick spot on the stairs at school, a tumble down the last two, and Sora catching Riku awkwardly, moving his head the wrong way and kissing in the bottom of C-Stairwell. It wasn't quite a proper kiss, there were no hands in hair, no panting, moaning or any kind of tongue, but there was that brief moment of pure surprise and the realization on both sides, that this was what they had wanted for so, so long.

"Sorry," Riku said swiftly, righting himself and pulling away quickly, his cheeks burning (when was the last time he blushed, anyway- he felt like a teenaged girl). "I. Floor's slippery. You should be careful. Tell Kairi I'm sorry."

Before Sora could even say anything, Riku had moved as far and as quickly away as he could, to gym, leaving Sora to stare after him, sinking down to the floor.Tell Kairi I'm sorry. What did that even mean? Did it mean that he and Kairi were finally going out, and it-the kiss- had been an inadvertent cheat, which he was afraid of the girl being angry at him for? Or did Riku think that Kairi and Sora were dating and-

"…Don't think I've seen you thinking that hard since….ever," Tidus said from the top of the stairs, elbows resting on the cold metal of the bars that kept everyone from falling to their probably very painful deaths. "What's up, kiddo? We have gym in like, a minute."

"I'm not going to gym," Sora muttered, lips twisted into a slight frown, not bothering to look up as Tidus made his way down the stairs and stood in front of him. "Go ahead, you'll be late."

Of course Tidus never listened to anything like that. "Riku got you down?" Tidus said easily, ignoring the directions to go to the gym, not really feeling like running right then, anyway. Crouching down before the boy, he poked his forehead, wanting to know why the usual bright and cheerful Sora was so very…down looking. "Listen, you know it'll take him time to get his act together."

Sora flinched at that- did everyone know that Riku liked Kairi, besides Kairi herself? Honestly, the girl was dense as…well something for not realizing it. "I know. They just need to get together, you kn-"

Tidus started laughing, bright, cheerful laughter like Sora had just made the funniest joke on the face of the planet, leaving Sora to stare up at him like he was insane. "You're retarded," Tidus grinned, shaking his head as he reached out to the brunet boy. "Riku really, really likesyou, you dolt. Haven't you seen anything, or learned anything?"

Brushing that off easily, Sora offered a vague smile in return, clearly humoring the boy for the moment. "He really likes Kairi, always, always has, you know that. Her parents know that. His parents know that. I'm his…friend." He ignored the hand, shaking his head. "Not right now, okay? I just…don't…feel like going anywhere or doing gym right now." The smile turning more real, Sora shrugged. "Let me be lazy- it's the last period of the day."

Shrugging, Tidus let it drop, hands going into his pockets as he nodded. "Just…a word of advice. You wait too long, you don't do anything, and he won't know, and he'll just move on. You're both stupid like that." His sagely words having been heard, Tidus waved and then trotted off to gym, having to run two laps for being late but not really caring. In the stairwell, Sora stood up slowly and made his way home, thinking.

'Tidus was right," Kairi said softly weeks and weeks later, only the light of the movie allowing her to see the way that Sora's face went from widely smiling at the characters, to frowning, seeming to deflate. "He told me what he said to you…Just…Sora, please, you know he won't do anything. Make a move. Take the chance."

Sora said nothing for a long time, reaching for the remote and hitting pause. "I think I need some more juice," he said, not hearing Kairi's sigh of but you still have a cup left.

"C'mon, Sora," Riku called, reaching a hand down to the brunet, their eyes meeting for a long moment as he waited waited waited for Sora to take it, relieved when the boy did, and he was able to pull him up into the tree-house. "Thought you wouldn't…" he admitted quietly, sitting back against the old, worn walls of the place. "Ironic, yeah?"

Sora looked at him, just looked at him for a long, long moment, like he was drinking in all the little details, like he could memorize all of Riku in just a few short seconds. "I wish I would have taken your hand earlier," he said softly, his heart and his mind were made up. "I wish we…I wish we could have all gone together. I wish that you had gotten the Keyblade and…that things had turned out better for all of us."

Silent for a long time, the older boy just watched him, his legs stretched out before him, the bright blue of their uniforms the only real color in the drabness of their old clubhouse. Worn-out posters of all their favorite old Blitzball teams lingered still on the walls, the edges torn and frayed, their ratty old couch far too small for them, tucked away in a corner. "I'm glad that you didn't," Riku said finally, raising blue-green eyes to Sora's, his expression carefully blank. "I don't know what could have happened if we were all in once place. The…I think the only way we survived is because we were sepa-"

Slipping forward, Sora placed a finger on his lips, halting any and all conversation. Just watching in return he slowly drew his hand back, leaning forward and kissing him in one somewhat-smooth move, hands on Riku's shoulders, nothing like their kiss months ago. The older of the two didn't move for a long time, didn't even breathe, his eyes wide with pure shock, while Sora kept his closed, afraid of what he would see. A few seconds later, Sora pulled away, his heart pounding. "…Um," he managed eloquently, hands curled into fists with pure nervousness. "I don't…don't like Kairi. Like that. Like you think. Because…"

Riku cupped Sora's cheeks gently, and Sora's heart raced, mind going a mile a minute because Riku hadn't pulled away, hadn't made him go, hadn't-

"I know you don't mean it, and it's okay," Riku said and Sora drew back as if he'd been hit, his stomach suddenly flipping, throat tight. "It's…we can't. I'm…I was going to ask Kairi out today, Sora. I was going to ask you if it was okay. Because. Because you're my best friend, and I love you, and-"

He'd wanted to hear those words for so long, but not that way, oh gods, not that way at all. His heart ached, so much more than when he'd slid the warm, solid weight of the Keyblade into his heart and killed himself, so much more than when he had to leave Kairi behind on their islands, and lock Riku in the Darkness. "Of. Of course," Sora managed to croak finally, and he forced a smile on his lips. He did mean it, he meant every inch of feeling behind that kiss, but it was obvious that Riku couldn't, didn't understand it. He loved Kairi. "I just. Sorry. That was stupid of me. Take her somewhere nice, okay?" Sora stood on shaky legs, offering a tiny, crooked smile and made his way out, back down the rough wooden planks, and to his room, ignoring the splinters in his fingers.

A week later found Sora laying on Excalibur, swim-trunks and sandals only, the raft having been re-built and fixed in their absence. Footsteps, too light to be Riku's and too slow to be Selphie's, too short to be either Tidus' or Wakka's, made him slit his eyes open just a little, taking in the redhead girl.

"I'm so sorry," Kairi whispered, and Sora's eyes went wide as she dropped to her knees beside him, throwing her arms around his shoulders as he sat up, trying to figure out what was wrong. "He told me, Sora- I thought…When he asked me out, I thought you'd…fixed things, talked them out, but oh, Sora." It wasn't raining, so it took him only a brief second to realize that those were tears on his shoulder, from Kairi, the girl shaking in his arms. "He told me you kissed him, about the stairs, too, and about everything. You've just…you acted fine, this whole week so I thought you talked it out, I didn't know – I didn't mean to steal-"

"He wasn't ever mine, Kairi," Sora said softly, hugging her close and hating how the feel of her body against his did nothing save for feel nice, like hugging a friend or a sister. "I told you he loved you."

"But it- it's notfair!" Kairi trembled, pulling away from Sora, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Why can't you be happy too! Why don't you g-get to be happy?" It wasn't fair; it wasn't fair by any stretch of the imagination. Sora and Riku, they had been friends for forever, since they were born and all Kairi could think was that she'd broken them apart, broken what had been there for so long. "I didn't…"

Sora leaned forward, kissing her forehead, thumbing her tears away gently, his lips in a warm, soft smile- a real one. "I waited too long, Kairi. And besides, it's…it's better for him. I can't fix him the same way you can; it's the Light that will do him more good, and heal him, in a way I guess." Hugging her close, Sora slowly let her go. "Don't…don't leave him because of this, okay? Please…"

Both jerked in shock at the sound of Riku calling Kairi's name, and the girl brushed her cheeks free of the tears Sora had missed, nodding. "I….I won't." An 'I'm sorry' lingered there in the air, as she pulled away and headed to where Riku was coming from, accepting his hand, brushing off his question of if she was okay with a nod, knowing Sora was watching, though Riku didn't.

Sora laid back on the boat when their hands linked, let the slowly rising surf lick at his toes and his sandals; as long as they were happy, he was too. Everything he'd been through, all of the bad and the good, was so his friends would be happy, and now that they were, it was okay. Because he and Riku had started out their lives as friends, and it was okay to end them like that, even if it hurt just a little bit, seeing them together. But it was okay.

Their first kiss had been on pure accident, their second kiss had been a kind of wonderful mistake, but Sora didn't care, as long as they were okay. He loved them; owed them that much at least, and hoped Riku's third and on were mind-blowing.

…I have nothing to say, lolz. Exams are over for me, thank god, annnnd I'm still in my PJs. Please let me know what you all thought, and please please please, if you read or especially if you fav/alert, please just drop a review. It can be small, it just makes my day. ♥