A/N: Ah, it feels good to be writing this story again after a long break. And gods, what's with all the reviews and such? You guys are AMAZING! I was so unsure about the previous chapter, but it would seem that you all liked it :D I'm so happy~

Now, more about the story. Well, the story is really starting from here, dears. Riku and Sora still can't get along, but the spark is there. Oh yeah, it's there, huhuhuhu. Like I also said in the previous chapter, there's a bit of drama in this. But if you want me to be completely honest with you: not a lot of things happen in this chapter. Yeah sure, Riku encounters a familiar face, and Sora is not a whiny little uke, but that's it :D though you will need to read this IF you want to understand what'll happen next. Okay, I think that's it? Sorry, but I'm a bit brainless at the moment, lols.

Again, a big thanks to all my Sweet Hostage readers and reviewers, it's all thanks to your support that this story still exists! :D

Warnings: tad bit of OOCness. Language, violence, blood... the usual. This fic implies boyxboy relationships.

Beta: all my thanks go to Seka-Chan, my wonderful beta!!

Disclaimer: I had Sora handcuffed to my bedpost. Riku came to rescue him. Damn you, silvery jerk.

"If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."

- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Chapter IV: Lucky Bastard

"Shit, they found us faster than I expected."

Riku was staring outside the window; trying not to get his face too close to the glass in fear the cops would see him. Not that it really mattered, since they already knew he was here. Guess it was a personal habit from the past that he couldn't seem to get rid off.

He leaned away from the window and stood up, knocking the chair over while doing so, and walked towards the lump on the ground, a mop of brown leaning against the bedpost. The actual problem, to put it bluntly.

Or you know: his sweet, cute and polite little hostage, namely Sora.

Looks could be so deceiving, though, and Riku was kind of glad to have chosen the brown-haired kid, because now he knew that before he would form a bond or socialize with people, he'd regard them all as evil mini spawns. This kid was more of a nuisance than anything, really.

And Sora was definitely not sweet or polite when he showed his true colours. Riku was this close to rip the kid's tongue out of that lewd mouth and burn the damn thing. Luckily, Sora wasn't as bad as his insane family—but who could be more insane than those three lunatic maniacs?

Though you couldn't really consider Loz as a bad person; all he ever did was cry anyways. But Yazoo and Kadaj (especially Kadaj, who looks so cute when he's trying to destroy their house)?

Exactly, no one.

"We can't stay here any longer; if we do they'll barge inside your apartment and then all my efforts would have been in vain. So please, and look, I'm pleading here! Please cope with me, at least until I'm safe!" It was humiliating to be begging to his hostage – his hostage – to just hook their arms with each other and not being difficult.

But even then, and he kind of expected it, all what Sora did was stare at him for a whole, hellish minute with that passive face of him so that you just couldn't read or know what he was thinking in that head, that when you first saw it you'd think it was as empty as…as… Well, as empty it could be.

Riku knew better. The kid's head did not contain dust bunnies or cobwebs, oh no. Sora was a scheming little bastard that loved to torture the silver-haired male with only verbal ways to do so. Like now, for example, when a smirk skirted the brunette's angelic face.

And really, it was so out of place; Sora shouldn't even be able to smirk like that! It made him all the more suspicious, plotting something behind that innocent mask.

Riku really regretted to have chosen the brunette as his hostage, too. If he had taken his time, looked around a bit more, then he could have found a better target. But no, he hadn't. He had absolutely wanted to sleep instead of fleeing out of town. Now that Riku thought back, he wondered why he hadn't opted for one sleepless night if it had meant avoiding this kind of situation or the simple existence of Sora.

God damn it all, Riku was such a dipshit sometimes.

"And why do you think I don't want them to come into my house if they're here to save me? That would be pretty stupid of me, to let the opportunity to be freed pass. So you'd better come up with something good, otherwise I scream." Sora sneered, a hint of challenge in his voice like he was taunting his captivator to come up with a good excuse. Like he actually wanted him to come up with something.

"Scream?" Here Riku frowned. Wasn't that a girl's thing?

"Trust me; I can yell loud enough to make your ears bleed."

"Oh. Wonderful. Thank you for telling me that; now that I know that, I won't hesitate anymore to put this new strap of duct tape over that naughty mouth of yours." And in one swift motion, Sora had lost his ability to speak again.

"There, that's one problem solved." Riku grinned down at the brunette, swearing that he saw a mischievous glint in those blue eyes, but preferred to ignore it. He had already fallen in too many of Sora's traps, thank you very much.

"Okay!" with a tad bit too much excitement, he went back to the window – carefully not to fall over the chair – and tried to calculate the situation. By the looks of it, it was like the whole police department had received the message and were waiting outside. Waiting for him to come outside.

Riku unconsciously bit on his lower lip, wondering if it would be possible to pass unseen through all of them. Sure at least one of the cops would notice him and shoot Riku without hesitating. One guiltless (he was not guilty!) criminal more or less, what did it matter?

Justice always prevailed, and nothing could change that fact.

While scanning over the many faces, he saw two things that were outstanding all the rest. And he idly wondered if it was a plan to lurk Riku out of the apartment, or that those two were just here at the wrong place at the wrong time—probably Sora's friends.

In one way or another, the tall redhead was trying to calm down the blondie next to him who was doing all kinds of motions with his hands, and by the nervous expression of the redhead; it seemed like the kid was throwing all kinds of insults and other blasphemous words at the cops. Funny, it was like he was watching Sora, but then with blonde hair.

And suddenly, realization hit him—hard. He knew them, he had seen them when he was hiding in the alley and they had by-passed him. He remembered that the blonde had called after Sora when the brunette was drooling all over the display window at some cupcakes.

"Oh holy motherfu—" that blonde hair, that attitude, and those clear blue eyes. Oh yeah, that kid was definitely Sora's brother, and the redhead was that blonde's boyfriend, from all the groping he had seen earlier before he had abducted Sora.

So, okay, fine. Now he not only had cops on his trail, tracking him down like dogs on drugs, but also two morons from which one was a seemingly complete idiot that would set his own kitchen on fire – accidentally or not – while the other one was a short-tempered guy with a very serious brother complex.

Dear God, he was royally screwed.

He prayed to the Heavens that it was just a coincidence, that Mr. Pyro and Mr. Blondie weren't really here and that the two were mere people that resembled them—a lot. To confirm this, shoo away the bad feeling that had nestled itself in his guts, he turned towards Sora and asked in a voice that was three octaves higher than normally:

"You don't happen to have a brother with blonde hair, do you?"

Sora frowned at the question, not quite registering what the silver-haired had asked, since he was after all cuffed to a bedpost with ducktape over his mouth and a bastard of a kidnapper who was merely a year older than him, thus had other things to worry about. But when he did understand what the male had asked, he somehow managed to smile even through the tape.

Frankly, it was scary, and didn't help to make the bad feeling go away. Instead, it increased tenfold. Now, nervous and edgy, he asked another question. He wished he'd never asked. Sora's eyes were practically laughing at him—how he managed to do that, it was one of the many mysteries of the world. Riku didn't really have the time to think about Sora's more than strange abilities. They needed to go away, right now.

Riku kneeled in front of the brunette, quickly and skilfully taking the ropes around the kid's ankles off and pocketing them (you never knew when they would come in handy, especially with someone as unpredictable as Sora) and chose to let the handcuffs around Sora's wrists. Though he had to undo one, otherwise he had to take the bed with them.

When that was done, he none-too-gently threw Sora over his shoulder; descended the stairs without tripping and started his search for a backdoor. But when he ran from one room to another, he couldn't seem to find one.

"Shit, we can't go through the front door, that'd be suicide!" To be sure he hadn't missed it, he checked all the rooms again only to stand restlessly in the middle of the living room. Sora nudged him with his elbows, but Riku plainly ignored it; Sora had been doing that the whole time, plausibly to annoy the young man even more.

Riku tried to calm and ensure himself that there was no need to worry. Without even being aware of it, the silver-haired male started to talk to himself, receiving strange glances from the brunette, which was quite difficult to do so considering Sora was dangling with his head down, right above Riku's (nice) bum.

The young boy sighed inwardly. Gods, how did Riku change from cold-hearted bastard to a panicky and agitated jerk? Wasn't a captivator supposed to contain all his emotions inside and hide them behind a blank mask? Well, fuck, Riku did a damn poor job at that. Poor guy, he would have been better off being a gardener or a cook or something, not a half-baked criminal that was having a series of heart attacks, simply because he couldn't find the backdoor.

Not that there was one, but it wasn't like Sora could mention this. Poking was the only thing he could do, but even then Riku was too dense and preoccupied with his own misery that he wouldn't even try to at least check what Sora wanted to say.

Self-proclaimed smartass.

Thus the manly yell that could be heard all over the place was not because Sora had accidentally elbowed the silver-haired male a bit too hard, angering Riku, who lifted the brunette off his shoulder and glared at him with bright aquamarine eyes. And of course Sora knew that Riku was going to snap at him; that's all his captivator was capable of anyways.

He snorted at that, making Riku even more irritated and the brunette took a few steps back in order not too have spit splattered all over his face. He had showered earlier in the morning, didn't need a second one, thank you.

"Why did you that for? And why the hell are you snorting? Can't you see I'm busy trying to get our asses out here! Shit, you're so troublesome!"

"Mbml." Mumbled Sora, not actually talking but just making a point by trying to speak so that Riku would gently – or so he hoped – get the tape off his mouth and let him talk. Like Sora had expected, Riku did what the brunette had thought he'd do, except for the gentle part, and Sora opened and closed his mouth a few times to get the sticky feeling away. He then steadied himself, making sure to back away a little more, before he sweetly said that there was no backdoor.

The silence that followed was making the brunette a bit uneasy, and he looked everywhere except at Riku, who, after hearing this, had gone pale—and was that black floating thing behind him his murderous aura?

"Excuse me?" he finally spoke, not certain he had heard it correctly. But when Sora continued to smile, a forced smile, something inside him snapped. It took Riku exactly five minutes to throw the brunette over his shoulder again, mount the stairs with heavy steps and open a window in the furthest room; the backside of the apartment.

All doing this while cackling madly and making Sora frightened, especially with that strange aura still hanging around the silver-haired male. He made a mental note to never, ever again make Riku pissed off, even if it was unintentionally. The way Riku was looking downwards, with his head out the window, Sora could only assume that he was calculating the height, which was pretty high.

Sora hoped that Riku wasn't going to do anything stupid, but that's just wishful thinking, because the next thing he knew, he and Riku were outside. Riku got a strong hold on the windowsill, and with a simple "Hold tight", he let loose and both were falling downwards at high speed, gravity already pulling and pushing at them towards the pavement where they would become a puddle of flesh and bones.

Not exactly how Sora wanted to end up like.

Luckily, it seemed that Riku had more than one trick up his sleeve: before they'd hit the ground, he made a spin in mid-air, tightly grasping Sora, and with a graceful landing he released a sigh from the effort. Sora wanted to puke out his insides.

"Now that's what I call jump, right kid?" The excitement was way too clear in his voice. It was like Riku did this on daily basis, jumping off houses or out windows without smashing his face against a wall or breaking his bones.

"Y-yeah, and you're insane." Sora shivered, more from the fear of having an almost-death experience than the adrenaline rush. He was definitely not going to tell this part to Roxas when he was free—if he ever got free. Which him reminded again that he should be as insupportable as he could be while he was in Riku's presence. Maybe then the young man would get tired of him and leave him behind.

"No, I just don't like to hesitate over things."

"Like kissing me without asking."

"What does that have to do with this?" Riku asked, cocking an eyebrow. Sure the kid couldn't still be mad at him for that?

"Everything, you bastard." Actually, the kiss hadn't bothered him that much; Sora just wanted to make Riku feel bad because he was capable of doing so.

"…Whatever. I'm not gonna start a fight with you again about some insignificant peck on the lips. I'm pretty sure the cops are ready to break down your door and when they'll realize that we're not there, they'll start patrolling the streets." With that, Riku made sure Sora wasn't going to fall off and started a light jog.

But before he could reach a corner that lead into another street, the sound of a gun that had gone off resounded loudly through the air. Riku halted, glancing over his shoulder. Sora felt the silver-haired male tense, and he also looked up.

Apparently, a cop had been smart enough to first check the other side of the apartment, the gun still aimed at both boys. Sora frowned: if the cop had shot at them, then surely they would've been wounded. Maybe the policeman had first fired in the air as a warning and had then aimed the weapon at him and Riku.

That's what he thought, until he heard the pained moan and the smell of copper invading his nostrils. Blue eyes widening, he glanced sideways only to see red liquid slowly coming out of Riku's shoulder-blade, tainting the black coat he wore to an even darker shade of black.

"R-Riku!" Okay, aside for the fact that he wasn't very fond of his captor, he somehow had started to care enough about the young man to be worried. Plus, the injury seemed to be deep and needed to be treated as soon as possible.

"Shut up, I'm fine." Riku said through clenched teeth. It was like his whole body was on fire, and not the one that was pleasurable. Inhaling deeply, he dared to take a step forward, but with Sora weighing down on his left shoulder, and the stinging pain in the other, it only resulted him in gasping quite loudly and almost dropping the brunette.

Another shot, and this time it was a warning, and Riku was forced to make a decision. He couldn't possibly run fast enough without the risk of being shot if he had to carry Sora, but he also couldn't leave the kid behind otherwise he was doomed. Raking his mind for any ideas, he got interrupted when Sora's voice broke through his thoughts.

"Put me down, Riku. I'll run alongside you and help you get away." It sounded so unlike Sora, making Riku wonder if the brunette was joking around. He shook his head.

"No. If I do that, you'll just run away yourself. I'm not that stupid you know. I just need to find something else."

"You'd better hurry then, 'cause that cop alarmed the others and by the looks of it, it will take them less than a minute to come here. So please, just for once, trust me. I promise I won't run! I'm not that much of a jerk to leave you all by yourself when you're hurt." Sora tried to lift himself up, but it was near impossible to do so. Riku stayed silent, having a mental fight and really, it's not like he had that much of a choice beside trust Sora and hope that the brunette would keep his word.

"Riku! Put me down, they're there!" Riku snapped his head in the direction of where he and Sora had come, and indeed: a whole tribe of policemen spotted the two. Cursing loudly, he put Sora down and undid his hands to make the running easier.

Their gaze locked for a moment, each trying to figure out what the other one was thinking. With a last pull on the handcuffs, Riku warned the brunette, and something flickered in those aquamarine eyes that Sora thought was insecurity.

"I swear, if you pull any tricks on me, you may be sure I will make you go through hell and back." It was an empty threat, Sora realized, but he pretended he didn't notice and nodded.

"Don't sweat, I've been there my whole life. You would too if you had a brother like Roxas." He chuckled and Riku managed to snort before they started to run, Riku leading them through many alleys, streets, over metal hedges and even through traffic—where Sora was almost propelled by a car.

All the time, the brunette made sure to keep an eye on Riku. How tough the silver-haired tried to look, Sora knew that he was suffering and that his injury was hurting more and more. The blood had even started to drip off his hand, and Riku regularly swiped it against his coat. The last thing they needed was to leave a trail behind.

--

Finally after what seemed like hours, Riku stopped and leaned against a wall in a secluded street, still alert but more focusing on regulating his raspy breathing. God, it felt awful! It was like someone was tugging at his arm non-stop. Sora stood in front of him, a worried expression on his face.

"Ri—" a hand placed over his mouth cut him off. Sora saw the silver-haired male scan around, probably searching for any sign of cops, but they've been running quite a while and they had come a long way. The brunette was pretty sure that the cops had lost track of them. Prying the warm hand away, he lightly touched Riku's arm. On instinct the young man flinched.

"Riku, we need to treat that, or you'll lose your consciousness from blood loss. I even bet that it's already becoming difficult for you to keep your eyes open. Maybe we should ask for someone's help…" the kid trailed off and walked away. He hated to admit it, but there was just something about Riku that made him want to stay with the guy. The other part of him – the rational part – screamed to take this wonderful opportunity to flee.

It was a hand around his wrist that made him stop, and when he gave a questioning look at the silver-haired male – who clutched his arm like it was going to fall off – Riku only tugged at his thin wrist.

"Stupid, we can't just ask random people to help us," he spoke softly, "How are you going to explain that I got shot?" Well, Riku had a point here. It would cause a lot of problems, but what were they supposed to do then?

Right at that moment an ear pitching screechy sound came closer to where they were situated. Riku's eyes widened, and he idly wondered if Karma didn't hate him after all. That sound of tires, the humming of the motor; it could only come from one motorcycle.

The Fenrir. Cloud's beloved motorcycle. Hallelujah, they were saved!

Pushing himself with much difficulty away from the wall, grimacing while doing so, he stared ahead and waited. Sora asked what he was waiting for, but Riku only hushed him.

"You'll see, just watch."

The noise became louder and louder until it came right into the street both were standing in and Sora got to urge to jump to the side because the one who was steering the bike didn't have the intention to stop. Riku didn't move, and Sora thought Riku was going crazy: the silver-haired male was grinning the same way Roxas did when he plotted something awful, with terrible consequences Sora always had to clear up.

Suddenly the guy (heck, it couldn't be a girl) pushed on the brakes and the brunette protected his ears in fear of becoming deaf. The unknown person casually dismounted his bike, and with a very cocky posture but honest surprise all written over his face, he saluted Riku.

"Cloud?" It was still too good to be true, Riku thought.

"Riku! What are you doing here?" the voice of the man was calm with a hint of playfulness, like he knew Riku for a long time. Which was probably the case, seeing Riku's lack of defence around the guy. Sora felt a twinge of jealousy inside him; it kind of unnerved him that this guy knew him so well, while he knew nothing of Riku, except for his age and the reason why he was a criminal.

Though considering their circumstances, it was pretty normal. It's not like kidnappers and hostages befriended each other and told everything there was to know about their existence.

"Taking a break." The silver-haired male answered after a pause.

"No shit, I didn't see that. I mean, what the heck are you really doing here? I thought you were out of town!"

"That was my intention until I got side-tracked and had to change my plans." Sora understood what Riku meant by side-tracked. He frowned; not liking the way Riku described him at all.

"You can plot plans?" asked the person in amazement, like he'd just heard that fairies weren't real, unless you counted Riku as a fairy.

"…Yes."

"Huh, that's quite unbelievable to hear coming from you."

"What?!" Riku shouted, irritated. Well, Sora also found it rather surprising that Riku could scheme things. Even though Riku's plan A and B sucked and Sora had thought that it was pitiful to come up with such amateurish ideas. Really, how could you call feeding your hostage a plan? But anyways, that didn't matter now. He felt excluded, and he was not going to stand here all evening listening to their chit-chat. Policemen, anyone?

"Uhm, sorry to interrupt your… interesting conversation, but is this really the time to be talking?" When the person heard him, he finally noticed his presence and a vein appeared on the side of Sora's head. The brunette wasn't that small neither unnoticeable, damn it!

"Ooh, who's this?" The person came to stand closer and Sora could finally get a better look at who he supposed was Riku's good friend. The young man, probably in his early twenties – maybe eighteen or nineteen – was tall with a lighter shade of blonde hair than Roxas's blonde hair. The eyes were also paler, with a bit of green in them. For the rest, he looked rather normal. So it only perked his interest at how he and Riku got to know each other.

"That's—"

"Wait," the blonde interrupted, like realization suddenly hit him, "Now I understand why you didn't leave the town immediately after you escaped; you picked up your secret lover to travel with you! Never thought you had a romantic streak in you." The guy smiled and Sora was startled: had he just been called Riku's lover?

"He's not—"

"Hey, don't worry dude!" the blonde interrupted again and ruffled Riku's hair like he was a little kid. "I also have a lover, but I left him behind so he wouldn't be in danger. I am, just like you, a convict that escaped."

"You have a lover?" asked Riku.

"I'm not his lover, nor friend actually. You can say I'm his hostage though." Telling the truth was always better, like Sora's mother told him.

"…Hostage?"

"You have a lover?"

"Yes, hostage. Riku here," and he pointed at the silver-haired male who got blatantly ignored by both boys, still not coming over the fact that the blonde has this whatever-secret-unknown-lover, before Sora smiled all too sweetly, "literally snatched me off the street and demanded me to lead him to my apartment."

The blonde stared at him in awe; mouth agape and clearly shocked. "No way!" he yelled, but Sora just nodded and decided to torture Riku by telling the blonde what had happened until now, even though he felt a bit sorry afterwards when the blonde scolded the silver-haired male. Ah well, he had been nice and stuff with Riku because he was injured, but he still thought it was fun to see his captor receive the morals by this guy.

Oh yeah, Sora definitely started to like this blonde already, and the feeling he had earlier when the two were so intimate dissipated. They were only good buddies, Sora concluded when he watched the two argue and a chuckle escaped his lips.

Somehow he didn't mind being Riku's captive, because in some way something told him that many interesting things were going to happen—be it bad or good, it's definitely worth it to stay by his sides.

"Riku! How could you! Such a cute little kid! You should be ashamed!"

"I said I was sorry! It's not like I had fun watching over the kid; he's like Kadaj when that lunatic's searching for his Babyliss! Well okay, maybe not that bad, but Sora definitely isn't an easy person to deal with! That kid has split personalities!"

"If you hadn't kissed me while thinking I was some fragile porcelain doll, I wouldn't have showed my true colours." A silence, and one outburst later and the blonde was scolding Riku again.

"Anyways, it's good to see you still alive and breathing, Riku, but I think it's about time we left. Oh, right! I'm Cloud, by the way." The blonde, Cloud, held a hand out and Sora shook it, also giving his name. Cloud said Sora didn't have to worry about Riku too much, and all what Sora could was agree.

Except that it was then that Riku decided to collapse on the ground and the brunette was quickly kneeling next to him, Cloud on the other side. Sora tried to call out to Riku, but the young man didn't answer. When the brunette put a hand on his forehead, he cringed and voiced the obvious thing.

"Oh crap, he's burning up. It's probably because of his shoulder."

"Shoulder? How did that happen?" Cloud asked while Sora tried to make Riku sit up, turning the young man's back towards the blonde so that he could see the wound and all the blood that was still dribbling. How could Sora forget about something so trivial? No, how had Riku managed to stay on his feet for so long without fainting sooner? Now that he looked closer, a very small pool of blood had formed on the ground.

"Some cop saw us and shot. I think we need to find a hotel, otherwise I'm afraid we'll need to go to a doctor, but I don't think Riku would be all that happy to find out he's in a hospital when he wakes up, security and shit surrounding him." Cloud nodded in affirmative and stood up, helping Sora to lift Riku. He volunteered to carry the silver-haired male on his back, since Riku weighed a bit too much for the brunette to handle.

Sora had no problem with it, but asked Cloud if it was okay to let his bike behind. It was quite a unique engine after all. He wouldn't be surprised that many people would want the same and steal it when given the opportunity.

"Nah, don't worry about it. No one ever passes here; I know this street from before I got thrown into jail. Besides, I really doubt you can carry Riku. No offense, but you are small and a bit scrawny, so I think the choice is quickly made when you have to choose between your friend or your bike." He smiled while walking out of the street, Sora trailing behind him.

"Although sometimes I'd rather choose my bike over Riku…" He chuckled when the brunette gave him a face of disapproval. Oh yeah, the kid definitely liked Riku, and vice versa too. They were still too dense to notice the spark that was forming between them, but they'd discover it soon enough. Until then, Cloud would zestfully enjoy the situation.

After a while, they managed to find a cheap hotel (luckily Cloud had some money on him), and the woman at the main desk didn't ask any questions about the unconscious Riku, which was probably also because Cloud could give subtle threats and a way too fake smile while saying those said threats.

After that, the night became a very long and sleepless one. It took a lot of patience before Riku's fever finally lowered a bit, a lot of clean bandages and utter control over shaking fingers and puking sounds from Sora until the wound was cleaned, disinfected and finally treated.

True, it was a rough night, but what was lying ahead would be even more challenging and Sora couldn't shake off the feeling that gave him goosebumps.

Well crap, he really had the best luck of the world, huh?

To be continued…

A/N: Wow, not a lot of dialogue in this, eh? Sorry :C I'll make it up to you guys in the next chapter! I hope there weren't too many mistakes.. If so, please mention it so that I can change it. Anyways! Finally, FINALLY Riku and Sora are going to become more intimate with each other (not that kind of intimate, your pervert :p )! Love is nice, isn't it? Oh yeah, and a bit of Cleon (LeonxCloud) too :3

QUESTION: what do think I should add more into this story? I will write a lemon (not too graphic) in the near future with Riku and Sora, so don't sweat about that. But it's still too early now for them to close themselves up in the bedroom. So. What, drama? Angst? Maybe some LeonxCloud or AkuRoku? Or something else? You decide, you ask, I'll write it.

PLEASE REVIEW, THANK YOU~ :D

Yours truly,
Midnight