[Team One] the feeling infinite

[knittenkitten]

hi I wrote an entire Soriku fic please enjoy! [T, 1620 words]

"Together, they would one day visit those cotton candy clouds."

Riku closed the book and placed it gently on the nightstand.

Sora sighed, releasing Riku's torso from his greedy arms, and rolled dramatically onto his back with a groan, picking up then slamming his head into the pillow with a thwump for good measure. Briefly bemused by the loss of Sora's warmth, Riku pulled up the blanket settled himself in, turning to give Sora a sympathetic smile.

"Probably not worth asking, but... did that help?"

"Nope."

Insomnia had been Riku's lifelong frenemy, but recently, it'd made acquaintance with Sora, too, and tonight had left them in the same boat. They'd tried all sorts of things—hot tea, a documentary on Sora's Gummiphone, huddling for warmth (which turned to nervous giggling), and, finally, having Riku read the only children's book they had been able to find in the Mysterious Tower's library. But as magical as the whimsical story about a land of candy was, it held no power over the whims of sleep.

"Sorry." Riku placed a palm on Sora's shoulder and rubbed a small circle. Sora leaned his head forward, into his favorite spot on Riku's chest, and met Riku's hand with one of his own.

"Aww, it's not like it's your fault or anything..."

And yet, to Riku, it felt like it was. He often wondered if Sora would have ever had these problems if it hadn't been for all the ways Riku had hurt him. The way he'd betrayed him. The way he'd abandoned him in a misguided attempt to protect him. The way he'd given Sora distance Sora hadn't even wanted. The way...

"Plus you sound really nice reading books. If I did feel sleepy, you'd have me hanging off your chest all night."

Riku felt blood rush to his cheeks. "Hey." He pressed his lips together.

Sora puffed his cheeks. "Well, I wasn't about to let you wander off into your thoughts like that again. That's how this whole not sleeping thing works, isn't it?"

"Thank you for your concern," Riku replied, flatly, but he was sincere when he scratched Sora's head through soft tufts of hair. Sora had read his mind correctly, after all. "Any more ideas?"

Sora put his thumb to his chin. "Hmm... well, when I was trying to find the power of waking, all that searching for it didn't really work. But when I most needed it, it was right there. So maybe, we've got to go out and just... obtain the power of sleeping?" He scratched his cheek. "Sorry, that probably didn't make a lot of sense..."

Riku shook his head. He knew exactly what Sora was talking about. After all, it had only been when he'd stopped the intellectual act of searching for Sora and begun following his heart instead that he'd been able to find him. And he knew from experience that sleep worked just like that—it came better if you weren't thinking about it.

"No, you're right. Maybe we could use a change of scenery."

"Mmm... we've already tried the kitchen with the tea, though..."

Riku shoved the blankets off his legs and pushed himself up. "I was thinking outside."

Sora sat up and eyed him as he hopped off the bed and threw a pair of sweatpants over his sleep shorts, turning to practically scowl at the cloudy sky through the window. "Yeah, but you can't see the stars at all..."

Stargazing was their go-to, but it wasn't what Riku had in mind. He pulled out Braveheart with a dramatic fwoosh and a raise of his eyebrows.

"Up for a match?"

Sora laughed and threw himself out of bed with a powerful, wiggly bounce. Then, he grinned as he pulled out Kingdom Key—the show-offy grin he saved just for Riku, the one Riku cherished more than anything that could ever be found in their travels together.

"Always!"

Riku couldn't help but laugh as Sora tripped into his sweatpants and then out the door behind them, and the giggling continued... at least until a tall figure emerged from the kitchen carrying a hot cocoa and they stopped dead in their tracks. Lea put a hand on his hip and sneered. "Where are you two lovebirds going so late?"

Sora crossed his arms and scowled. "Outside!" he said, indignant, perhaps still a bit too sensitive from years of being teased by Donald and Goofy.

"Can't sleep," Riku added, forcing a smile.

Lea eyed them suspiciously, then burst out laughing. "If I were you two, 'outside' is just about the last place I'd pick to work out that energy, but I guess I'm not one to judge. You two enjoy yourselves!"

With a casual wave backwards, Lea disappeared up the staircase.

"What was he talking about?" Sora whispered.

Riku shrugged. "It's Lea. Pay him no mind."

Sora hummed his agreement. Then they bounced and bounded down the stairs—giggling again—and out the door.

Sora immediately pulled out Kingdom Key and lunged towards Riku, but, staying cool as a cucumber, he materialized Braveheart into just the right spot and blocked the blow.

"Come on! It's not fair for you to pull off such a cool move right away!" Sora yelled through the clang of several frustrated strikes at Braveheart.

"Don't try to pull a fast one and I won't have to!" Then, Riku got Sora off his case with a swift blow that knocked him onto the ground.

Sora rubbed the dirt off his cheek. "What was that, then? A slow one?"

Riku ran off toward the gummiship launch pad. "A shame you couldn't catch me before saying that, you know!" he yelled back.

And Sora did. And then he tackled Riku. And then Riku pushed him off. And then they traded blow for blow, at an intensity that Riku almost wanted to credit for the clouds starting to dissipate out of the sky.

Every fight with Sora was exhilarating, and that had even been true when they were young. Back then, he'd usually been the one to defeat Sora, but they were on equal footing now—if not off the ground—so Riku now had the rush of the risk of defeat.

Someday, he thought, everything would feel as simple and free as it did when he was sparring with Sora.

Someday, being alone with Sora would feel this simple and free, Riku imagined. It would feel like it had sitting at the beach with him in the Dark Margin, his legs swollen and tired, but his heart full and open, the words he needed spilling out unbidden.

Not like it did here, with the pressures of the day bearing down on them just outside their door. Or emerging in front of them with a hot cocoa.

With those things completely off their mind, they tired themselves completely out, and it became clear that this would be a draw. Sora let Kingdom Key go with a poof and plopped himself on the ground, and Riku joined him (a bit more elegantly, he hoped) in silent agreement to a peace, both of them panting heavily as they threw the other a cooling, bruise and cut-healing Cure spell.

The clouds had now cleared completely, and the pleasant burn of exhaustion that persisted through even the best magic had also melted away any notions Riku had of not sleeping.

It was nice having all the things they had —the fairies there to provide clothing, the magical kitchen to provide food, the others there to provide work and friendship. It was nice having each other and those things.

But, sometimes, Riku just wanted "each other". He could see from Sora's reaction to Lea that he wanted the same thing.

Maybe, moreso than the past shared troubles of their teenage years, that was the reason why they'd been having trouble sleeping lately.

Riku didn't gaze at the stars lost in his thoughts for too long, because this one needed to be shared. "I think a lot more clearly when I'm with you, you know."

Sora hadn't drifted off yet, and he responded immediately, cocking his head back. "Like... this past evening?"

"No, just now."

"Oh." Sora turned to look back up at the stars again. "I think... I do, too."

They enjoyed a peaceful silence until, suddenly, Sora rolled over to look directly at Riku. "Let's live together, then! Just us. Our own place."

No more Yen Sid sending them on missions "right now".

No more sudden visits from Mickey, Donald and Goofy, or who-knows-who-today.

No more teasing from Lea.

Just the two of them.

A sanctuary.

"T-that'd be nice." Riku gulped, unable to put his excitement properly to words. Someday, he believed, though, he'd be able to.

Sora planted his hands over Riku's shoulder to catch his gaze, blue and glassy and warm, and then he gave Riku a short kiss.

"Yeah, it would be," he whispered.

Riku didn't know when. He didn't know where. He didn't even know what world. But just the thought that it would happen someday—that it should happen someday—was enough for tonight.

Riku returned with a kiss and a gaze of his own. "Then... let's do it."

Sora nodded, then lowered himself down onto Riku's chest.

Riku couldn't have been less bothered by the way that brought Sora's sweaty hair to his chin and all over his tank top and shoulders. Whether it was because he was too tired or too happy to have him there, Riku couldn't tell.

In time, these two heroes who laid beneath the same blaze of stars would have a sanctuary all to themselves.

But for now, before they knew it, they had dozed off in each others' arms.

Tagging oath_breaker!