[Team 1] Drop a Gear, Disappear

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

1300 words of Sora/Riku fluff about Riku's continued failure to call a keyblade glider. Also motorcycles.


"Lunch date, THEN nap, that was the plan," Sora reminded, leaning over their bed in their shared room at the Mysterious Tower. Riku was facedown on the bed, radiating grumpiness. Sora ran fingers down Riku's T-shirt, right over his spine. "Hmm, there might have been a step before nap, but I think it also involved the bed? Gosh, whatever was it?"

Riku grunted, muffled into the pillow, but didn't move.

"Aw, come on, you've been sulking for an hour," Sora said, poking Riku harder. "Glider practice can't have gone that bad."

Riku lifted his head, gave Sora a ruffled glare, then rolled over to face the wall. The flop of his limbs said he wasn't going anywhere.

Sora sat down on the bed, reaching to smooth down Riku's hair where it was mussed up. "Wanna talk about it?"

"No," Riku muttered. Sora waited, gently undoing the tangles Riku's hair had worked itself into. It was getting longer again, and Sora was hoping Riku would stay too busy to go get it cut for a while. He thought if Riku just made it to ponytail stage, where Riku could pull it back and forget about it, he had a chance of Riku keeping it long.

Sora really wanted that. Riku always got annoyed when it was middle length, though, and ended up cutting it.

"I already called it once," Riku finally said. "I don't understand why I can't do it again."

Sora hummed. "What does Aqua think?"

"That maybe it's a mental block. Maybe I associate it too much with how much danger we were in when I called it before, or how scared I was." Riku rolled over, so that Sora's fingers were brushing his face instead of his hair. "She tried teaching me from scratch, but nothing. I think it might be broken permanently."

"You're so melodramatic," Sora said, making Riku frown. Sora used his thumb to pull the corner of Riku's mouth up in a creepy half-smile. "Maybe it's just because you're so shitty at gliding, huh? You keep losing your happy thou—AH!" Sora yelped as Riku grabbed him and yanked him down by the hoodie, rolling on top of him to pin him to the bed.

"I'll give you a happy thought, all right," Riku threatened, dropping his head to bite down on the sensitive spot in the curve of Sora's neck.

"Hey!" Sora protested, laughing as he wound fingers tight in Riku's hair. "Wait, I think I remember the middle part of the plan now."

A week later, Riku sent Sora a cheerful yet cryptic text that he should meet Riku at the Land of Departure whenever he was done gathering synthesis materials with Roxas.

"Ugh, I know that look," Roxas said, eyeing the way Sora was beaming at his Gummi phone as he texted busily instead of looking where he was going. Roxas grabbed the back of Sora's hoodie to keep him from going face down in the Lotus Forest when he tripped over a tree root. "Wherever Riku's asking you to meet him, just go."

"What? No, I'm fine!" Sora protested. Rolling his eyes, Roxas let go of Sora and just let him go. Six steps later, Sora ran right into the stem of a giant flower, making it sneeze pink pollen all over him. Sora pouted at Roxas; Roxas just shook his head.

"Go, go on," Roxas ordered, making shooing motions. "Take the ship, I can Corridor back."

Sora beamed, attacking Roxas in a quick hug that dusted him liberally with pink. "You're the best! I owe you one."

"You owe me six, at least," Roxas grumbled, grimacing at the state of his shirt.

Riku refused to answer any of Sora's mid-warp texts, except for telling him to keep his eyes on the road, so Sora was at peak curiosity by the time he landed the Gummi ship on one of the islands at the edge of Land of Departure. Riku was waiting for him out on the lawn, arms crossed, leaning on one of the low walls.

"What's up?" Sora asked, stretching up to his toes to kiss Riku's cheek. Riku palmed the back of his head and held him still for a real hello kiss, long enough to make Sora's heart flutter. Sora pushed Riku back just far enough to blink at him. "Ok, now I know something's up. What?"

"Hm, nothing," Riku said, way too casual to be anything but a lie. He raised an eyebrow. "Wanna see my glider?"

Sora gasped, slapping his palm against Riku's chest in excitement. "You did it? Really?"

"Sort of." Riku chuckled. "I was thinking about what you said, about how I'm terrible at gliding. I asked Terra if all keyblade gliders had to fly. He said he'd never seen one that didn't, but he didn't say there'd only ever been ones that did."

"What kind of glider can't fly?" Sora asked, brows scrunching. Riku smirked, clearly enjoying his confusion. "Ugh, stop being a weirdo and just show me!"

"If you insist." Riku pushed Sora to one side and called Braveheart. He swung his hand up as if about to toss it, like how Ventus tossed Wayward Wind to call his glider. At the last second spiked it down, as if planning to drive his keyblade into the grass. Just as the tip hit the grass, however, a burst of light made Sora squeeze his eyes shut.

When he blinked away the dazzle of it, Sora's mouth fell open at the sleek, silver motorcycle Riku was leaning against.

"Your steed awaits, your highness," Riku said.

"THAT'S your glider?" Sora demanded, feeling like his eyes were about to roll out of his head. Riku crossed his arms, trying to look cool about it, but his eyes were giving him away with their brightness, and the corners of his mouth were turned up. "Ugh, why is everything you do so cool?! It's not fair! Knock it off!"

"If you don't want a ride…" Riku teased, already throwing a leg over it to settle in the seat. He glanced over his shoulder as if judging how much space was behind him. "Hm, it's probably not legal. Better get back in your cool Gummi ship over there."

"Shut up!" Sora hollered, punching Riku's shoulder. If he looked at Riku and his keyblade motorcycle one second longer, he was going to spontaneously combust, so Sora scrambled on behind Riku. The curve of the seat pushed them together, Sora's chest flush to Riku's back as Sora wrapped arms tight around his waist. "No wonder your keyblade was a stupidly huge car key, geez."

Riku burst out laughing, and Sora clung tighter so that Riku couldn't turn around and see how pink Sora's cheeks were turning. Riku turned over the engine, and the vibration of it between his legs made Sora shiver head to toe. It was loud and low and perfect, filling his whole chest with butterflies.

"Where are we going?" Sora asked over the noise of it, not that he cared. Riku could drive them right off the edge of this floating island and Sora would barely even notice.

"What do you think about San Fransokyo?" Riku called over his shoulder. "This thing's safe enough for the World Order there. Plus you promised to show me what ramen is."

"Perfect," Sora agreed, clinging to Riku's back even tighter; the whoosh of a Dark Corridor opening ruffled both their hair from the change in air pressure. "Hi ho, Silver, away!"

"Who said you get to name it?" Riku demanded, but Sora just laughed. It would probably stick too; the bike was silver after all. Riku revved the engine, kicking off. "And away we go!"

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Next up is kira_shadow!