[TEAM ONE]

[oath_breaker]

Sometimes you just want to write survival horror. Darkwood au, kingdom hearts, soriku, 1.5k
 

He supposed there were worse ways to spend the night.

Riku leaned against the wall beside the oven, going cross-eyed as he stared at the scant fumes escaping the various pipes leading away from their one saving grace into the rest of the house. Sora was beside him on the uncomfortable straight back chair, hands loosely clasped between his legs stretched out. His gaze was distant, locked on the boarded up windows where slivers of space between the planks revealed the endless darkness.

Riku didn’t know if it’d been coincidence on a new moon night the one time he’d stayed out or if it was always an empty sky, but no matter how many nights they spent there, he never could see any hint of measly moonlight outside. Just the floating lights, large spectral beings that Riku was terrified of ever truly encountering.

Savages and dogs alike howled into the night, and Sora’s glazed eyes sharpened into focus. He didn’t flinch or shiver, long since enured to their ghastly sounds, but all the same Riku’s heart ached. If he wasn’t keeping careful watch on the other two entrances, he might’ve put a comforting hand on Sora’s shoulder.

They were inside what was essentially the kitchen of the hideout, the life saving oven in one corner, the essential workbench parallel to it. There was the aforementioned window, the boarded-up door with a huge wardrobe shoved against it for safety, and the gaping maw in the wall that led to the bathroom. It was irreparable, so all they could do was board up the bathroom door, shove the clawfoot tub against that, and lay a careful trap just before the hole in the wall. Both lamps were in the kitchen with them in case one went out, and Riku dreaded the day the generator flipped and the lights were killed. It’d be a race against savages and dogs and time alike to unboard the door, run to the shed housing the generator, and come back without dying.

They were as safe as they could get, though he hadn’t protested when Sora rigged a bear trap beneath the window, too. It wouldn’t be the first time a savage had broken through. 

Riku glanced at his watch. Just past midnight. He nudged the leg of Sora’s chair, jostling him from his daze. “Hey. Get some sleep, you’re passing out.”

“‘M fine,” Sora grumbled, scrubbing at one eye. He yawned, a flash of pink tongue in the lamplight that Riku looked away from. “You haven’t slept either.”

It was on the tip of Riku’s tongue to confess he hadn’t felt sleepy or hungry in days, but he swallowed the words back down. No use in worrying Sora. As long as Sora could still sleep, Riku would stay up. “Don’t be an idiot. Get the rest while you can.”

Sora finally tore his eyes from the window to look up at Riku. They nearly looked bruised from exhaustion and stress, and his clothes were ridden with tears from various attacks. Sora always took point on their hunts and scavenges, being lighter on his feet with a sharper eye, and it showed in how many close-calls resulted in his ruined clothes. Several bandages in varying degrees of bloodiness peeked through. 

Across his chest was the most damning one — fucking quack doctor had nearly cut him right open in front of Riku’s eyes. He was glad he couldn’t sleep, because the sight of Sora strapped to the examination table would surely haunt his nightmares.

Still, despite it all, Sora kept a cheery demeanor, bright blue eyes the only spot of color in the whole wretched world.

Sora visibly chewed over his choice, exhaustion warring with adrenaline. “Wake me if something comes?”

“I don’t think you’d sleep through it,” Riku snorted, but he still helped him lay out spare blankets, balling up Riku’s jacket to serve as a pillow. The nights here weren’t cold, but Sora still shivered as he huddled beside the oven’s warmth. With Sora tucked against the wall, Riku positioned the chair protectively in front of him, resting the shotgun across his lap as he prepared to wait out the long night.

There was only one attempt, thankfully. A savage beat his fists furiously against the boarded window, howling as if his legs were caught in the various traps that littered the hideout. Blood splattered the wood where he recklessly threw himself against it, nasty bodily thuds that made the wood creak and splinter on some hits. 

Sora startled awake, gasping and crying out as panic took over and he backpedaled against the wall, holding his hands up. 

Furious, Riku let the cold anger control him, easing his arms into the now-familiar stance as he aimed the shotgun at the window, waiting until either the dawn shortly broke or the savage broke through. Their lamplight filtered through the cracks, showing a scraggly beard, a wide bloodshot eye, yellowed teeth with the gums receding — at one point, the sickening crack of the savages arm breaking made Sora flinch.

Dawn came before it could completely break through, and with it the wondrous daylight.

Riku kneeled beside Sora and brought him into a tight one-armed hug, shotgun still loosely clasped in his left hand as he buried his face in the crook between Sora’s neck and shoulder.

Yes, there were worse ways to spend the night.

Sora’s deceptively thin but strong arms wound around Riku’s chest, returning the hug as he pressed a chaste kiss to Riku’s hair. “Thanks for keeping watch,” Sora murmured, voice warm and kind. For a single moment, Riku dreamed of their apartment back home. Of waking up on a rainy mornings to curl into Sora’s welcoming, warm body, wiling the day away in bed. But he didn’t allow it to linger. The heart ache was worse sometimes than their living nightmare.

“Not like you got much sleep,” Riku grumbled bitterly. Sora laughed, hands brushing through Riku’s long, unkempt hair. 

“It’s fine, I got enough. Now, let’s get the generator off before he have to spend a day hunting for more gas.”

Riku squeezed him tight than let go, beginning the annoying process of moving the wardrobe and tearing off the boards. Sora darted through the moment the door was free, racing to power off the generator, and Riku inspected the grounds, checking various traps. One had caught a savage, legs mangled to bloody bits as dark fluid soaked the ground. Like all the other savages, he was hardly recognizable as a human being, other than standing on two legs and having the odd semblance of a face. 

Apathetic, Riku briefly searched through the savage’s clothes, finding some stones and a staff some distance away. They could probably fashion an axe or shovel out of it. He released the trap and discarded the body to the side of the property, resetting the trap. They’d have to move the pile of flesh soon, since it’d begin to attack more predators, but for now they were safe.

Sora came back carrying the faint scent of gas fumes. He swung his arms up behind his head, surveying the blood caked trap. “Got one?”

“Yeah. Probably one of the screams we heard last night.”

Sora nodded. “Wanna wash up?”

“Definitely.”

A thankfully short distance away was a running stream, and after stocking up on ammo and Sora’s bow and arrows, they high tailed it to the water, drinking and freshening up. In the bright light of day, everything seemed a lot less horrifying, domestic, even, as Riku carefully fletched the arrows Sora had made, squawking when Sora splashed him with water. 

A bow and arrow wasn’t the most practical weapon, especially in close quarters, but Sora was a mean shot with it, and the more distance between them and their enemies, the better. Sora carried a small hatchet too, both for wood gathering and close-range encounters. Riku had the machete and gun, though as long as Sora noticed them first, they didn’t have to get too friendly.

“What now?” Sora asked, cocking his head at Riku as he sat cross legged before the stone Riku was perched on. 

Riku hummed as he fletched the last arrow, handing the small bunch to Sora to inspect. Times like these, Riku was beyond grateful for the carving hobby Sora had picked up in childhood. “Wolfman wants us to head to the secret forest, but we still don’t know how far it is…”

And they couldn’t risk going too far, if night fell.

Sora nodded. He reached forward to thieve the rolled up map from Riku’s side pocket, splaying it on the ground to inspect the various markings they’d made.

The first few were in Sora’s childish, admittedly bad attempt at art, and the rest in Riku’s at-least-it’s-better version. The shrine, the wedding, the poisonous grove of mushrooms, Wolfman’s camp where he goaded them regularly. Riku narrowed his eyes. It was likely just paranoia, but the trader seemed too keen on Sora, with his red and blue eyes peeking through the skinned wolf head he wore.

“I think it’s here,” Sora said, pointing to the one corner of the map unexplored. “I think we could make it there and back, and then go forward tomorrow.”

Riku considered the strategy. They’d need to comb the area for bigger threats to avoid or take down, maybe scavenge some supplies, possibly figure out if proceeding needed anything specific..

“Seems good,” Riku concluded, and Sora beamed. “Lead the way.”