writetomyheart | [TEAM ONE] SWEET DREAMS

Kingdom Hearts — Sora/Riku, Rated T, 2.3k,

He couldn’t imagine sharing a bed with anyone else.

Some of the tight anxiety that had ensnared Riku's chest loosened as they easily paired off for room assignments. Riku knew Sora could easily sleep with anyone, hell he'd probably knock out before the other person even laid down beside him, but Riku wasn't like that.

It made him feel standoffish and a little odd, that what seemed so easy to everyone else was a trial to him. His skin crawled at the top of sharing such intimacy with people he wouldn't normally allow to touch him as is, let alone to lay beside them for hours, sharing breath and body heat.

A creeping warmth swept around his nape and up to his cheeks as that thought fully registered.

He'd be sharing a bed with Sora.

It wasn't like that was anything new. They'd shared the bed plenty of times before, over countless sleepovers when the only thought on either of their minds was being on the same bed together would keep the monsters under the bed away. Riku had promised Sora that no spooky monster would dare to reach for them both together if Riku was beside Sora, and for years Sora refused to sleep unless Riku was beside him.

It was a fond memory, but it seemed leagues away from Right Now, where Riku stared down at Sora.

"Alright!" Sora said with an enthused grin, fist pumping into the air. "Now I get to hog the pillows without feeling bad about it."

That broke through Riku's nerves instantly. "Hey!" He said, scuffing the back of Sora's head with a half-hearted noogie. "You should still feel bad about it!"

"Awww Riku," Sora said, mischievous grin easy on his lips. Sora was a little darker than normal, a fresh tan from sailing in the Caribbean, and it made both his eyes and smiles seem that much more devastating. Sora would never be a model, with his stature and boyish looks, but he was as charming as they got. Riku didn't know anyone who hadn't fallen under his spell.

Except maybe Yen Sid.

Sora crossed his arms easily behind his head, shirt tails coming loose to ride high on his toned and tanned stomach. Riku's throat grew tight, his entire body flushed with heat at the sight. He wondered when this would pass, the susceptibility and the wanting. It'd been so many years, at some point it should taper off, right?

"Some of us need more beauty sleep than others," he said, and Riku immediately thought, not you.

He cleared his throat and looked up to their group around them. It was an exploratory mission, with the discovery of a new world enchanting almost all of them. It was all fun and games to train and live in the same castle until the wanderlust nearly all of them had began to itch. They'd had to settle for rock paper scissors just to have a fair chance for anyone to go.

Roxas was pursing his lips. He seemed to always have some kind of meditative expression around Riku, as if he was weighing all his actions on a mental scale. Riku only noticed because around Xion, Axel, and Sora his grin was as easy as Sora's. He tried not to feel too miffed by it, since it was really kinda fair.

"Talk of beauty sleep," Axel groaned, stretching as far as his tall skinny frame allowed. "I'll be lucky if I even fit on the bed."

"I think you'll have room," Riku said, smirking as he pointedly glanced at Roxas. It was playing with fire to even think of teasing Roxas, but it was just too easy.

Predictably, Roxas connected the dots and his face turned into a lovely shade of peach. "I'm not that short!"

Sora keyed in instantly at that, and given that they were the same height, his smile dropped into a scowl and he socked Riku in the side with an aggravated growl of Riku's name. Riku groaned, broken up with his chuckles as Sora landed a second punch, even though they were barely strong enough to be felt. It was more ticklish than anything.

The height jokes really never got old.

Axel's cheshire grin was proof of that. "C'mon, long day tomorrow and I wanna get in as much z's as possible."

"Of course you would," Roxas muttered fondly. He gave Riku one last glare that gave Riku the powerful urge to double check their door would be locked that night, and then drew Sora into a one-armed cross the shoulder hug. "Night Sora."

"Night Roxas, Axel!" Sora said, returning the hug with both arms and squeezing Roxas. The blond lingered, looking at Sora curiously before ducking his head and loping off after Axel's head start. The exchange was curious, but not unusual. Roxas always seemed hesitant to part with Sora.

Thoughts of Roxas always made Riku's guilty conscience act up, and he shook it off. There was no point in wallowing in self-pity, when he could make sure to better his actions from there on. As Terra had told him, it was a form of escape to only linger in his thoughts of the past than to try and focus on the present and future.

"Alright big guy," Sora said, tugging at the edge of Riku's jacket. "Let's check out the room."

As predictable as Riku's terrible jokes, so was Sora's nickname. It was an old one, but sometimes it made Riku glance askance at Sora beside him. He hated those low cut shirts, and the view they afforded him. He ripped his eyes away.

"Right."

If Sora noticed his clipped tone, he didn't mention it.

They were in a curious world, a little more modern than some of them but not anywhere close to San Fransokyo, but a lot more populated. Magic was normal here, and there was a grand festival called May Day going on that had everyone in a tizzy. Sora had dragged Riku to every event possible, and even into a dance that'd left Riku dizzy and giddy, strange feelings for him but refreshing to experience.

It was odd how he'd changed, slowly. Despite abandoning their home on Destiny Islands aside from scant visits, Riku found himself relaxing more than ever. The castle at the Land of Departure felt a lot like home, and routine interspersed with frequent and varied visits to other worlds left Riku invigorated.

Sora didn't even have to encourage and wheedle him that much to get Riku to join him, tugging Riku along by the hand and an excited, glittering smile over his shoulder. Riku had heard witches and wizards lived here, and he wondered sometimes if he'd been bespelled.

With the festivities, finding two rooms had been a struggle, let alone four separate ones, hence them pairing off to bunk. Roxas and Axel had lucked out with a second floor room, but they only other one available was a room along the gabled roof, so that when they entered the entire ceiling slanted at an angle. Riku could probably walk a few steps forward before he had to mind his head.

Sora, of course, had no issues. "Wow!" He said, staring wide-eyed. "Neat!"

There was rich carpets and nice furnishings, and the room had cost a little less by virtue of its placement. Sora wasted no time in crossing the room to the set of windows on the far side, throwing them open to let the evening breeze in and leaning nearly half his body out the window.

It reminded Riku fondly of always panicking when Sora had done careless stunts before. Now, he just watched, knowing Sora could catch himself even if he fell.

"You can see the whole plaza from here!" Sora said, words a little lost with the wind but still audible enough. Riku had to duck, but he walked over and braced his hands on the windowsill on either side of Sora, peeking out. The entire plaza was visible, as well as the distant mountains and the roaring train that blew black smoke. Gas lamps lit the town up at set intervals, but the twilight was just enough to still see details. There was a night crowd now, with the hint of their revelry just making its way to them. For a moment, Riku wondered what it'd be like to walk among them, a stranger in their midst.

Then he felt Sora shifting under him and he blinked, looking down. Sora was pink cheeked, glancing shyly up at him, and Riku suddenly realized he'd caged Sora in, and was even crowding him from behind.

"Ah," Riku said, cheeks burning. "My bad." He backed off hastily.

"S'okay," Sora murmured, scratching as his cheek. "We should get to bed anyways."

If Riku wasn't so embarrassed, he would've almost laughed with the comedic rush of Sora yanking off shoes, socks, outer garments, and hopping into bed so hard he nearly bounced off it. Instead, Riku followed after closing the window and curtains, sitting at the edge of the bed with his back to Sora as he worked his own shoes and socks off, shucking his jacket and debating if he should take his pants off. He knew Sora had, and it probably wasn't supposed to be a big deal to sleep in boxers, but he just couldn't bring himself to. The most he did was remove his belts for comfort.

Sora was as snug as a bug. In fact, Riku thought he might've been suffocating a little with how tightly the sheets were wrapped around him, but being able to avoid Sora's gaze helped. He bit his lip, exhaled softly in an effort to control his nerves, and lifted the sheets enough to slip under it. For a moment he considered just sleeping on top them, but he knew Sora would protest and it'd lead to a discussion of why Riku wanted to sleep on top and just avoiding all of that was better.

It was as impersonal as beds generally went. The sheets were stiff and crisp, but the bed was comfortable after a long day of walking and playing, and Riku couldn't help the sigh that slipped loose when his head hit the pillow.

For a while, it was just the sounds of their breath. Sora still hid beneath the sheets, even though Riku could feel how hot he was across the scant distance. Sora's weight dipped the bed some, probably not as much as Riku was, but he felt tangibly close. Inches away. Riku could shift his arm just so, and he'd be touching Sora.

Riku hated this.

He hated the awkward, tense atmosphere. That his own stupid feelings kept Sora hiding. He should've been better than this, he should've moved past this.

Breathing in deeply, Riku said, "How long're you gonna hide under the covers, Sora?"

"M'not hiding," came the muffled reply after a beat. Sora brusquely ruffled the sheets in some kind of shimmy that had Riku laughing. "This is comfy."

"Right," Riku said, "I know you have to be feeling hot in there. Come on, this doesn't have to be so awkward. It's like a sleepover."

After a minute of thought on Sora's end, finally a blue eye peeked through. His brown hair was a complete mess and all over the place, any artful arranging on Sora's part gone. That single bright eye felt like it saw into Riku's soul.

"A sleepover?"

Riku swallowed hard. "Yeah. Just another one sleepover."

As if that was the magic word, Sora's entire head popped free, grin and tan and freckles and all. Riku knew he was wearing a disgustingly fond smile, but he couldn't help it. He reached over and carefully parted Sora's hair back into a semblance of a style.

"I finally see the resemblance," Riku murmured, fingers carding through strands with slow intent. He didn't mean to linger, it was just impossible to pull away any faster.

"Resemblance?" Sora echoed, a little like a parrot.

"To Ven," Riku clarified. Sora had always preferred patting his hair down until that stint when he was probably trying to compensate for his lack of height, Riku thought unkindly. "All three of you have that crazy hair."

"Look who's talking," Sora said, hand snaking free to dive into Riku's. Riku stilled instantly, warmth flooding him from the point where Sora touched him. He was overly warm, part natural heat, part of it reflected from his cocoon. Rough fingers found his scalp and then gently pulled through his hair, where it tufts stood at end. "You've gone through more hairstyles than I can count on one hand."

Riku was struck mute and frozen. Having Sora's careful consideration focused on him was frying his nerves. Sora seemed lost for a moment, contemplative.

"I like this one," he concluded with odd finality, "but when you grow it out, it looks really nice."

"D-does it?" Riku managed.

Sora seemed to come to himself, and he pulled away then, cheeks pink. He must've been blushing pretty hard for it to show up at all. "What do you mean 'does it?' Of course it does!"

Riku kind of thought he looked like a drowned rat when it was long, but maybe he should put some serious consideration into the matter. As if, life-and-death-serious consideration.

"We should get some sleep!" Sora blurted suddenly, startling Riku from his reverie. He'd been staring at Sora, he realized. Turned on his side at some point, arm outstretched between them where his hand had fallen from earlier.

"Right," Riku murmured, his got-to word when he was tongue tied. Sora bounced up to his knees to stretch over Riku and turn the lamp off, and for a long glorious moment as Sora fiddled with the switch, Riku was treated to the length of skin bare on Sora's stomach, abs and hips and that tiny waist, and Riku could just tilt his head up and kiss it, and the light switched off.

Thrust into darkness suddenly, he could only feel Sora hastily moving back and tucking himself in. As if to makeup for the tense mood, he tucked Riku in too around the edges, making him laugh a little.

Riku settled on his back, Sora curled up.

"Night Riku," Sora whispered.

"Night, Sora," Riku whispered back.

And if Riku woke up hopelessly tangled with Sora, he'd do his best to slip away without either of them noticing.