kh_drabble | [ challenge 225 - warmth: heartbeat ] (Reply)

Challenge: [225] warmth
Title: Heartbeat
Word Count: 295
Rating: G
Spoilers/Warnings: There's some hint of slash, but only if you squint really hard.
Summary: However, Sora had to be different. He just had to be different.

Heartbeat

Riku was not one to lie. He always told the truth. Even if it was painful, he would find the courage to tell it. There were more than enough chances for him to lie – but he was above that. He didn’t want to create more problems for himself or others. He didn’t want to involve himself with others so he often told the truth. The teen knew no one wanted to hear the truth so they wouldn’t bother with him.

However, Sora had to be different. He just had to be different. He had to expect the truth from everyone like the innocent archetype he was. It annoyed Riku because he would tell the brunet he annoyed him constantly and yet the boy wouldn’t leave him alone.

“Why,” Riku asked one day, “why do you insist on bothering me? What is it that you want?”

He remembered the boy smiled at him warmly. Riku remembered something warm inside of him swell inside his chest. He couldn’t explain on what it was – it was an emotion he never experienced before. He wasn’t sure if he liked it or not.

“Because,” the brunet answered, “I thought maybe you’d like a friend.”

Riku didn’t respond. He had nothing to respond with.

The memory of that encounter stuck with him for years. Even at the thought of the memory, it made his heart beat like it did that day. Riku wasn’t sure what it was that made his heart beat like that, much less feel all warm inside.

Even in the dark solace of the cell Maleficent kept him in, it’s the memory of that day, the day he and Sora became friends that kept him warm. It kept his hope alive that Sora will come and get him.