Kingdom Hearts, Written in the Margins

Title: Written in the Margins [Sora/Riku]
Rating/Warnings: PG
Summary: Sora and Riku work things out in the Dark Margin at the end of KH2.
AN: Written for Shiritori. haha it was a LONG train ride back from NYC and I spent all of it writing some Sora/Riku that obviously spun right of control and has more parts than this, but here’s what I have for now.

Written in the Margins

“Though I’m not even really hungry…are you?”

Something poked at Riku’s shoulder, and Riku peeled his eyes open, trying to remember when he’d even closed them. His whole head felt fuzzy, and his limbs too heavy to move. He didn’t remember lying down either, but Sora’s face was hovering over him, mouth pinched in concern and blue eyes somehow still bright despite the dimness of this place.

The Dark Margin, Riku remembered slowly, like water seeping up the legs of his pants.

“Did you fall asleep?” Sora asked. Riku tried to shake his head, then winced as the motion made it throb just above his left eye. He was having trouble keeping Sora’s face in focus, and there was a sparkle at the edge of his vision that didn’t bode well. “I asked if you were hungry. I’m not yet, but I feel like I should be? I don’t know how long we’ve been here.”

Riku tried to take stock of how he felt, aside from like one continuous bruise and dizzy. “I’m…not hungry.” Honestly, he couldn’t feel anything other than ache. He let his eyes fall shut. “I just hurt.”

“I can try Cure again, I think my magic’s as recharged as it’s getting in this place.” Sora shifted, the sand rustling, and then the slight pressure of his hand touched down in the center of Riku’s chest. “Where’s it hurt?”

Riku huffed a laugh that came out more like a gasp. “Everywhere.” He tried to draw a deep breath but it caught on the ache of his ribs. An echoing throb knotted at the base of his skull. “Can you…my head? I can’t even think.”

“Yeah, I’ll try.” Sora’s touch was gentle as he threaded fingers through the hair at Riku’s temple, the heel of his palm coming to rest against Riku’s cheekbone. “Curaga.”

The rush of magic from Sora’s hand felt like cool water being poured over Riku’s head, tingling like the hot-cold of a muscle patch. The intensity of it was unpleasant against his skin at first, but faded in a couple seconds, taking the ache of Riku’s skull down to a manageable hurt like someone had turned the volume on it down. Riku cautiously chanced opening his eyes again; Sora’s face was clearer, and the migraine sparkles were gone.

“I think it’s better,” Riku told him. He shifted, getting ready to sit up, but Sora dropped his hand to Riku’s shoulder, grip tight. “What?”

“Your side,” Sora reminded. As if just drawing attention to it caused it to remember to hurt, Riku was suddenly aware of the tight knot of pain just below his ribs over the rest of his soreness. “Maybe you shouldn’t move? It looks…”

“Like what?” Riku wanted to know when Sora trailed off. The idea of the twisting motion it would take him to sit up and look for himself made Riku’s stomach turn. His vest was still unzipped, though, so Sora should be able to see it clear enough.

“Bad,” Sora said, unhelpfully. “Like that first Cure I cast didn’t look like it did anything.” He barely brushed fingers against the wound and Riku clenched his teeth down on a yelp. “I’ll try again when I—”

“I’ll try,” Riku said, ignoring Sora’s protest. He fumbled with his hand, trying to cover the right spot without looking. It wasn’t exactly a cut, not bleeding, but felt more like a deep scrape or a burn, overheated and raw. He pressed down firmly against it, even though it brought pain tears to his eyes and muttered a ragged, “Curaga.”

If Sora’s spell had felt unpleasant, Riku’s felt like agony. The magic draining out of him spilled what little energy he had left out through his fingers and poured into the injury like salt water over an open wound, searing. An agonized groan ripped from his throat, and he slumped limp in the sand as he ran out of energy abruptly; the spell cut off like turning off a faucet.

After panting for a few seconds, Riku managed to ask, “How’s it look now?”

Sora’s mouth was pinched into an unhappy line. “Not as bad. But not good.”

“We’ll try again in a bit,” Riku said. He really should sit up and see for himself, but the thought of trying was unbearable. All he could think about was how much he hurt and where they were stuck. “Can you…just talk for a while?”

“Sure? About what?” Sora asked. He was still looking down at Riku with so much worry, and Riku hated being the cause of that. He shifted closer, knowing Sora took comfort from contact and not minding a little comfort himself. He turned his head until his forehead was pressed against the outside of Sora’s hip.

“Anything,” Riku told him. “I just want a distraction. Tell me where you’ve been, what happened when you left the islands.”

“That’s a really long story,” Sora warned. He put the back of his hand to Riku’s forehead as if checking his temperature, then left his hand resting on Riku’s hair, lightly, cautiously.

“Good thing we’ve got nothing but time, then,” Riku told him. “Tell me everything. Start with the night of the storm.”

“Well…all right.” Sora took a deep breath. “After you disappeared, and Kairi, there was this huge Darkside, and all this lightning and then everything went black. I woke up in Traverse Town…hey, I want to know what you were doing all that time, too.”

“We’ll take turns,” Riku promised. “You tell me what you did, and I’ll tell you what I did. Deal?”

“Deal,” Sora agreed. He launched into his story without hesitation after that, getting more animated as he got into it, even starting to imitate Donald in a way that made Riku laugh despite how it made his ribs ache. Riku did truly want to know what Sora had done all that time they’d been apart, but mostly Sora’s voice was pleasant to listen to, the warm rise and fall of it a familiar constant from Riku’s childhood. They’d been apart so much in the last two years, done so much, and now Riku was more than happy just to rest and let Sora’s voice soothe at least a few of the cracks in his heart.

Eventually, Riku slipped off to sleep, more deeply than the first time as his body tried to heal itself. When he woke up later, he had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, but it was long enough that Sora was curled up beside him in the sand, fast asleep. Sora had rolled onto his side, facing Riku, one hand curled in the fabric of Riku’s vest like he was afraid Riku would slip off somewhere without waking him up.

“Sorry,” Riku murmured, sorry for making Sora feel like that, or for actually doing that, or maybe for all of it. Gingerly, Riku reached for the injury on his side and tried one more heal spell. This one seemed to take more fully, his skin still overwarm but feeling like regular skin again instead of that awful raw feeling. He felt well enough to chance rolling carefully onto his side in the sand so that he could look Sora over more fully.

It had been a while since he’d had a chance to look Sora over carefully, especially from close up. He still looked entirely peaceful when he slept, like nothing in the whole world could be wrong, and Riku was glad for that at the same time as it brought up the unpleasant memory of Sora sleeping for those months on end inside the pod. Riku had hated seeing Sora trapped in that eerie thing, watching Sora’s tan fade to sunless pale, watching a year’s worth of Sora’s growth spurt and being afraid of what would happen when he woke up suddenly so much older. At the beginning, he’d spent hours sitting at the control panel attached the pod, just wanting to be near Sora, wanting the reassurance of the vital signs on the monitor and the steady peaks of his heartbeat; near the end Riku had barely been able to look at Sora in there at all, sick with worry that he’d never wake up at all.

It was the memory of that feeling, maybe, that made Riku reach over before he realized he was doing it, putting his hand over Sora’s neck and pressing his thumb into Sora’s pulse point. Sora’s heartbeat thrummed steady under his thumb, making Riku breathe a tiny sigh of relief.

“Mm?” Sora’s eyes fluttered open, hazy with sleep. “Wha…oh, fell asleep, huh?”

“Yeah,” Riku agreed. “Guess there’s no point in asking how long I was out.”

“Shoulda kept watch…sorry.” Sora grunted in annoyance at himself. His expression cleared as he woke up a little more, looking Riku over. “How do you feel?”

“Better,” Riku said. “Tried another spell and it doesn’t hurt to breathe now. What about you?” Riku’s eyes drifted to a bruise smudged across Sora’s cheek, the purple definitely darker than before he’d fallen asleep, ugly blue at the edges. “Did you use any of your magic on yourself at all?”

“I’m fine!” Sora protested. “Way more fine than you were, so shut up.” He let his head fall back against the sand, rubbing his cheek in it to get more comfortable. “Still not hungry. You?”

“No,” Riku agreed. “Time is weird here.”

“Was it like that before when you were here?” Sora asked, expression unsure like he didn’t know whether it was all right for them to talk about the before. “Were you here?”

“Not right here, and it was sort of like here but not really.” Riku took a deep breath and found that he did want to talk about it, a little. “Some parts are a lot darker, deeper. Some parts have a lot of heartless. Some parts talked to me, trying to drag me in deeper. Sometimes they sounded like people I knew, like you, or Kairi, and other times they sounded like myself. Those parts were the worst.” Riku shrugged. “But here’s not so bad. I think we’re close to the border here.” And I’m not alone, he didn’t add out loud.

“The ocean’s nice, at least,” Sora said. “It sounds like ours at home, doesn’t it? I miss the sun, though.”

“Sora?” Riku asked. “Did you mean it when you said you didn’t mind staying here?”

“Yeah,” Sora answered, too quickly. Before Riku ask if he really meant that, Sora went on. “Obviously if we could figure out how to get home that would be great, but I know everyone else is safe and I’m on the same side of the door as you this time. I’ve spent every minute since I woke up in Traverse Town searching for you, and I’m exhausted. If we’re stuck here, at least you’re stuck with me too so I can finally rest.”

“Sora,” amusement warred with emotion in Riku’s chest, “you slept for an entire year.”

“Ugh, you’re never gonna let me live that down!” Sora groaned, kicking his feet in the sand in irritation. “It didn’t feel like that to me! It felt like I closed my eyes for one minute and then when I woke up everything was three times worse, you were even MORE lost, PLUS my underwear didn’t fit!”

Riku started laughing, even though it felt too loud and out of place in the silence of the Dark Margin, and couldn’t stop. Sora joined in laughing after a minute. When they eventually calmed down, they had shifted closer together, close enough for Riku to see the faint sun freckles across Sora’s nose. He was glad to see them again, glad that Sora had been out in the sun enough to earn them back.

“What about you?” Sora asked. Riku blinked at him, no idea what the question was about. “You don’t mind being here? Again?”

“It’s…different. Last time, I thought it was forever. For a little while, I thought everyone would be better off if it was forever.”

Sora’s brows drew together angrily. “I wasn’t!”

“I know that now,” Riku assured. “I’m not even sure if that was something I thought myself, or something the voice that sounded like me whispered to me. But I got out of here once, so I’m not scared like the first time. And you’re here, so I’m not alone. I think maybe that’s why we’re in the Margin instead of much deeper in? You’ve got more light in you than anyone else I know. How can I fall into deeper darkness when you’re right here?”

“Do I really mean that much to you?” Sora asked. He was fidgeting, only meeting Riku’s eyes in quick glances.

“Yes, of course,” Riku said. “You’re my best friend. You’re…” The truth hovered on the tip of Riku’s tongue, the words he swallowed so often rather than say. Sora was watching him curiously now, blue eyes luminous, and in the half-light of this quiet place, Riku wondered if it would really be so bad if he finally gave his feelings voice. “You’re the person I treasure most. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Sora said, so easily that Riku knew he didn’t get it. “You’re my best friend, too.”

“No, Sora. I mean…” Riku almost had to laugh, because how could he explain more than he’d already just said it. “I mean, I love you.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sora insisted. “You just said.”

“No,” Riku insisted. Not knowing how else to get his point across, Riku slid over, all the way into Sora’s space, and cupped his hand around Sora’s cheek. He hovered with his mouth over Sora’s for a breathless second, giving Sora time to pull away if he wanted, but Sora stayed right where he was until Riku finally pressed their lips together. The kiss was soft, chaste and still, but it still sent nervous electricity spiraling down Riku’s arms and all the way down to his toes. He pulled back, heart racing, and waited for Sora’s reaction.

Sora looked like he’d been struck hard on top of the head, eyes wide. “Wow.”

“Yeah,” Riku agreed, not sure what they were agreeing on.

“That was…” Sora licked his lower lip, and Riku helplessly tracked the slide of his tongue. “Have you ever done that before?”

“No,” Riku said. “You?”

“Nuh-uh,” Sora answered, and a tightly furled corner of Riku’s heart relaxed. “Do it again?”

He should ask first, Riku knew, he should find out if Sora really understood what he was trying to say, but Sora was already leaning into his space and claiming another kiss without waiting for Riku. This one had more motion to it, Sora’s mouth moving against Riku’s in curious presses, one of his arms snaking around Riku’s neck to hold him in place. Riku curled his arm around Sora’s waist, helpless to do anything besides cling to him while it felt like his heart was crumbling into pieces and being remade at the same time.

Sora broke the kiss but didn’t back up, keeping their foreheads pressed together while they both drew unsteady breaths. Their noses brushed together, and Sora had wound fingers in Riku’s hair at some point, caught in the uncombed tangles of it.

“I don’t know what to say,” Sora admitted, hushed. “I feel funny, all over.”

“Yeah.” Riku felt the heat of Sora’s body pressed against his from chest to knees; he ran fingers over the bumps of Sora’s spine and felt Sora shiver against him. “That’s exactly how you make me feel.”