[TEAM ONE]

[oath_breaker]

 Riku, Sora

“Fine, it's your turn to tell me a story,” Sora huffed, settling against the cushions and crossing his arms expectantly. Despite the petulant tone, his eyes were bright, twinkling with a mischievous, eye-creasing smile. 

Riku rubbed at the back of his neck, glancing around the circle they sat in. Roxas was fiddling with his modded phone, brows furrowed as they usually were as far as Riku knew. Beside him, Ven was thumbing through a book, though he looked up at Riku’s lingering silence.

“I don’t have any,” Riku admitted. “Not like yours, at least.” He hadn’t snooped through the Xehanort’s home, even if he’d walked its halls as an invited guest more than a handful of times. His life was painfully boring compared to theirs — he woke up, he had breakfast, he had his lessons, he practiced, he ate some more, then he went to bed. The only break in routine was on the occasional party or family reunion he was called to, and even more rarely, when Xehanort himself decided he wanted to see Riku’s progress. It was embarrassing to even think of sharing his rigid, structured life.

“Sure you do!” Xion said, scooting forward and dislodging the elbow Vanitas had resting on her shoulder. She ignored his sour look. “What’s it like living up there?” 

For an absurd moment, Riku thought she meant the sky. It was on the tip of his tongue to say the weather was nicer, but then he realized she actually meant the upper strata he lived in. He paused, meticulously considering his words so he wouldn’t say anything possibly offensive. 

“Brighter,” Riku said, firm. “Here, everything has so much color, and there’s so many flowers. Up there, any weeds that sprout are plucked every day. It’d ruin the infrastructure if they sprouted,” Riku explained, worried they might not understand the way roots could spread through concrete and metal and force it apart. “But to make up for it, and because everyone’s always awake, there’s always lights. It’s hard to see the stars,” Riku added, a touch wistful. He’d never actually seen the stars the way his books showed them — glossy, blown up photos of a galaxy stretched from horizon to horizon, and the way the moon and stars could light up the night sky. 

“What about the magtrack?” Ven asked, and even Vanitas perked up at that, side-eyeing Riku. 

Riku’s cheeks warmed under the attention, but Sora only squeezed his hand in encouragement. “You’ve never been on one?”