KH - Chance Meeting

On a small pier that looked out to a vast ocean, one small boy sat while he idly kicked his legs. His feet never touched the water while they swayed since he was much too high up, but he did wonder sometimes when he would be big enough to at lest skim the surface. He could boast about it to his mom and she would be proud of his new accomplishment. Just the thought of it made Sora smile while he hugged the stuffed bunny he held closer to his chest.

His mother had brought him to the island as a surprise. They had come by boat because it was the only way to get there from the town. Sora had never been to the tiny island before and his mother said she would allow him to stay for a little while and have fun. It was just like a day on the beach except he couldn’t go in the water since he didn’t know how to swim.

Sora had waved as his mother had left and felt adventurous when he suddenly had such a large place to explore for himself. It was when he had finally gotten bored of digging through sand and climbing trees that he had ended up on the pier to sit and just stare at the ocean. He could see it from his window at home, but it didn’t have the same feeling as it did on the island he soon found.

The sun was starting to dip down and Sora knew that his mother had probably taken the time she had to start on dinner. He wondered what they would be eating when his eyes caught sight of a small boat in the distance. In an instant, Sora was quick to jump up on the pier to try and catch a closer look. He expected it to be his mom. He couldn’t wait to tell her all the things he had seen on the island, especially the strange tree that seemed to be growing so crooked near the edge of the island.

As the boat soon came closer Sora noticed that something was a little off about his mother. She seemed a lot shorter than normal and her hair was an odd silvery color. On closer inspection it seemed his mother had turned into a little boy, and as Sora watched the boat finally slow to a stop he locked eyes with turquoise ones and couldn’t help feeling rather cheated.

“You’re not my mom,” he finally spoke up.

The little boy who was definitely not Sora’s mom gave an indignant huff as he stood from the boat and made his way onto the pier. “I’m glad we got that cleared up.” Small hands tied up the rope to keep the boat in place as if the boy had done it a thousand times before. “Now,” he started to speak once more while he turned to look at Sora, “what are you doing on my island?”

Sora had been so awe-struck by how quickly another boy like him could use a boat so simply that he almost didn’t hear the extra possessive word that was used. It caused Sora to bristle up as he narrowed his eyes on this mean little boy. Well, he wasn’t really all that little. He was a head taller, but still Sora tried to be intimidating. “T-This isn’t your island! Pixie and I were here first!” Just to prove his point, Sora held up the stuffed rabbit in front of his face.
The plush rabbit was pushed aside by the other boy’s hand to get it out of his line of vision. It would do no good if he couldn’t show Sora the unimpressed look he was giving the boy directly. “No, you were here today. I was here first.” He finally began to walk past Sora and off the pier. “Besides, only girls carry around stuffed rabbits, especially ones named Pixie.”

Sora gaped at where the mean little boy had just been standing. He was sure he had just been made fun of. That had never happened before. Most people were always so nice to him. This boy was such a rude jerk. Sora wasn’t used to feeling so angry with another person. He felt hurt and he totally didn’t want to tell his mom. Not at all.

He turned around as quick as he could to watch the other boy as he walked away. Sora could fight his own battles easily and so he decided to shout the first thing that came to mind. “Yeah, well… you’re a-a big bully!” Of course as soon as the words left him he let out a startled noise and held his bunny up for protection while he peeked from behind it.

The supposed bully stopped on the sand just a few feet from the pier. Sora may not have been able to see it, but the boy rolled his eyes from beneath silver bangs at such immaturity. He refused to even answer the accusation and continued walking in the direction he had planned the moment he came upon the island.

Sora lowered his stuffed rabbit and stared rather dumbfounded as the other boy merely walked away. Of course it didn’t take long for him to realize he was being ignored and soon a small pout took over Sora’s features. He wouldn’t let the hateful boy forget that he was still around. Sora could be just as much of a pest, and that’s why he decided it would be a good idea to follow right along behind the other boy to wherever it was he was going.

There was a bout of silence between the two boys as Sora tried his best to be sneaky and follow behind at a distance. It didn’t help much that what he attempted to hide behind didn’t hide his small frame as well as he hoped. He had a tendency to drag his rabbit along the ground which left a trail behind him as well.

Finally it seemed the unknown boy had enough as he stopped in the middle of the island and took a sharp turn to catch Sora just as he was trying to hide behind a log that was resting on the ground. “What are you doing?” he asked in a bored tone.

Sora’s body tensed up from where he lay nearly face down in the sand behind the log. He didn’t understand how the other boy was able to see him so well. Maybe he had some kind of x-ray vision with those freaky eyes of his. What Sora didn’t realize was his hair was easily sticking out over the top of the log.

“Playing hide and seek,” he answered lamely.

“By yourself?” The boy looked a little amused at that as he slowly started to walk towards the log that Sora was behind. “You’ll have to try better than that.” He stopped right beside the log and reached down to grab hold of Sora’s shirt by the back collar to pull the smaller boy up to his feet. He didn’t expect Sora to suddenly start flailing his arms and that stupid rabbit of his the moment he had a grip on him. The latter of which promptly smacked him right in the face.

“Ow! What’s wrong with you?” Sora was let go to drop back down onto the sand so the boy could rub at his poor abused nose.

“It was Pixie’s fault, not mine.” To prove such a thing, Sora held the bunny up to his own face and gave it a stern look. “Bad, Pixie. You shouldn’t go around smacking people like that.” He turned the plush around to face the abused boy and wiggled it around. “Now apologize to… uh…” Sora was at a loss and dropped his rabbit back down to his lap while he shot the other boy a curious look. “What’s your name?”

The scowling boy dropped his hand from his nose to look at Sora with a miffed expression. “It’s Riku, and you’re the one that should be apologizing. You hit me with that stupid toy.”

“Riku…” Sora repeated the name, ignoring the last few words the other boy had spoken. “Riku. Riku. Riku,” he continued on as if the name was something he could taste on his tongue. Finally he gave a wide smile from where he still sat in the sand. He thought the name fit the mean little boy nicely.

Sora held out his hand, hoping to get some help back up to his feet while he introduced himself. “My name is Sora.”

Riku took one look at the hand Sora had outstretched and promptly ignored it. He turned his back on the boy in the sand so he could go back to what he had planned to do in the first place before he had given a care to the follower.

The smile instantly fell from Sora’s face as soon as Riku started to leave. He brought his hand back and looked at it. There was quite a bit of sand on it. Maybe the other boy didn’t want to get dirty while helping him up. That was okay; Sora could get up himself and hurried after Riku as soon as he was on his feet.

“Where are you going, Riku?” Sora soon found that he enjoyed saying the boy’s name out loud instead of just to himself. It put a smile on his face once again as he quickened his steps to make sure he was walking beside the taller boy.

“Somewhere that girly little boys aren’t allowed,” Riku was quick to answer. He finally looked to the side to give Sora a small glace even though it was an annoyed one. “Stop following me. I thought you were supposed to be waiting for your mom by the pier?”

A small bit of realization seemed to show on Sora’s face as he suddenly remembered he had been doing just that before Riku showed up. “Oh yeah.” For a moment he was troubled and unsure whether to leave the other boy alone and go back to the pier or continue following along.

Sora’s curiosity won out as soon as he noticed Riku walking on ahead, and disappear around the corner of the large tree that was settled in the middle of the island. “Wait for me!” he shouted as he ran across the sand with his rabbit trailing along in his hand.

What Sora didn’t expect was to suddenly bump head on into Riku’s back as he turned the sharp corner around the tree. It left the smaller boy stunned for a few seconds as he tried to figure out just what happened and why Riku was merely standing there. Oh yeah, he had told Riku to wait for him. That made sense then.

When Sora regained his senses he noticed that Riku was blocking the view of something. The shorter of the two was forced to stand on his tip toes to try and see over Riku’s shoulder, but before he could get a good enough look the boy in front of him suddenly whipped around to face him which only startled Sora again.

“You’re not allowed to come in here.” Riku’s tone was harsher than all the other times he had tried to shake Sora off. “I told you when I first saw you that this was my island, so that means it’s my rules. Go away and play with that toy of yours until your mom comes around to get you and leave me alone.” With his last few words, Riku placed his hands on Sora’s shoulders and pushed the boy back to make sure he understood him even better.

Riku didn’t realize that Sora’s feet had already been close to the drop off that led to the small waterfall nearby. With the one push the smaller boy lost his footing and gave a sudden noise as he slipped and fell backwards into the large pond. Riku’s eyes had never been more round in his shock.

The water wasn’t all that deep, so that wasn’t the problem. The problem was how wet and cold Sora suddenly was. Plus the small boy had landed right under one of the falls, so the water continued to drip down on his head in a constant stream. He stared at Riku from where he sat with wide eyes for a few seconds until the saddest expression finally crossed his features and the tears started to surface.

“You pushed me!” he yelled out between tears that were hard to see among falling water.

It was Riku’s turn to panic as he watched and tried to figure out just what to do so he wouldn’t get in trouble later. This was the first time he had met the little boy named Sora. He had no idea what the boy’s parents would do to him for pushing their son into a waterfall.

He hurried over and hopped down into the water, caring not that his shoes were getting wet. Riku noticed that the other boy was no longer holding his plush bunny and searched for it in the pool. As soon as he found the soggy toy he grabbed it and handed it over as a peace offering, though it did no good with his next words. “Well, you shouldn’t have followed me, stupid.”
Sora snatched the rabbit back as quick as he could from Riku’s evil clutches while he continued to sniffle through tears. “You’re stupid!” he shot back as if it was the greatest comeback in the world and hugged the toy tight to his chest while the water continued to rain down on him.

Riku was actually taken aback by Sora’s sudden hostility. The smaller boy had been so patient and happy the entire time after they had met. He guessed being stuck under a waterfall would change a person like that. It certainly made Riku feel bad and soon he held a hand out towards Sora for him to take. “You’ll catch cold staying under there.”

The sniffles stopped as Sora blinked away a few tears to give a cautious look at Riku’s hand. He glanced up at the other boy as he thought it over. “You’re not going to push me back down again are you?” When Riku shook his head in response it was enough for Sora to place a tentative hand in Riku’s own and sigh in relief when he was helped to his feet.

Sora had thought the other boy would let go of his hand immediately after, but that wasn’t the case as Riku was suddenly dragging him away from the pool. He thought about questioning it until he noticed he was being tugged towards the very spot that Riku had been guarding before the boy had pushed him.

It wasn’t long until the two boys were walking into the entrance of a cave. It seemed to be familiar to Riku as the boy wasn’t bothered or amazed by the sight. Sora, on the other hand, took one look around at the darkened area along with the large rocks and quickly tried to hide behind Riku while the boy still had a hold of his hand.

“Riku, it’s really dark in here,” Sora spoke up in a meek voice.

“I know. It’s cool, right?” There was a small grin on Riku’s face as he looked around. He thought that Sora was possibly enjoying himself as well and found that it wasn’t such a bad idea to bring the other boy in with him. When he turned his head to look back at the shorter boy a frown took over his features and he let out a sigh. “Don’t hide like some baby, Sora. The dark can’t hurt you.”

Sora glanced to the side at Riku and found that even in the dark cave he could see the boy’s freaky eyes. It put him at ease for some reason while he huffed and stood a little further away from Riku as much as their clasped hands would allow. “I’m not acting like a baby. It’s just… what if we trip or something?”

There was a roll of eyes from Riku and he tugged on Sora’s hand to urge the other boy to follow further in. “It’s not that bad. I’ve been in here a bunch of times and never tripped once. See,” he pointed with his other hand, “most of the rocks can still be seen easily.”

Sora had to admit that Riku did have a point. His argument was a little pointless after that, but he still felt like the place was a bit eerie. “Don’t you get bored in here? There’s nothing to do but look at the rocks.” Sora really didn’t see the appeal in the place that he had been so eager to follow Riku into moments ago.

The familiar annoyance was back on Riku’s face because of Sora’s need to complain. Here he had gone and been nice enough to show the other boy such a secret place and all Sora could do was point out faults. He was soon letting go of Sora’s hand to turn and glower at the shorter boy the best he could. “I happen to like it in here. So what if it’s just a bunch of rocks? That’s what pretending is for. It could be a whole castle if I wanted it to be.” He spread his arms out wide to show how big that castle could be.

Sora looked at each of Riku’s arms to see the other boy’s example, but still he didn’t seem impressed. “I guess so,” he mumbled off handedly. His attention was soon drawn away somewhere behind Riku to try and find something to do in the boring cave. Despite what Sora thought to be total darkness his eyes did catch sight of something on the ground and soon they lit up as he ran passed Riku to go pick it up.

“H-Hey! What are you doing?” Riku turned quickly to try and see what was so much more interesting to Sora than him. The other boy was bent down on the ground and picking up what Riku assumed could only be a pebble of some kind. That’s all he had ever seen on the floor of the cave himself. “So my cave is boring, but the rocks on the ground are so much more interesting?” he asked in a huff while he placed his hands on his hips.

“Nope!” Sora plopped himself down on the floor after his enthusiastic response. “Nothing in here is really all that interesting, but I’m going to change that.” He turned his head to smile brightly at Riku before his attention was soon back on the wall in front of him that the rocks of the cave made up. He was soon placing the large pebble against the wall and scraping it against the surface in order to draw a picture.

Riku looked on suddenly horrified at what Sora was doing to his cave. He was ruining it with his need to scribble. That’s what paper was for. Not his pretend castle. “Stop that!” He hurried over to Sora and dropped down behind the boy, grabbing hold of his shoulder to get his attention even further and force him into listening. “You’re messing it up!”

Sora shrugged off the touch since it was only messing him up and breaking his concentration. He said not a word to Riku’s demand and refused to move until he was done. The other boy’s frustrated noises behind him did nothing to stop him either. He could be just as stubborn as this Riku boy had been lately.

Only after a few moments did Sora finally stop and pull his hand back as he studied his drawing. He smiled in satisfaction and turned around just enough for Riku to see, feeling excited as he showed off his small masterpiece. “See, now this place isn’t so dreary and boring, Riku.”

Riku had gone silent after awhile since he had just about given up forcing Sora to stop. With the boy’s eager eyes on him he knew he had to look at the picture, but that didn’t mean he would have to like it. His mind was already going through so many ways to ask his mother how to get pebble markings off of rock. Mothers knew that kind of thing.

It was the moment Riku’s eyes finally landed on the picture that his anger seemed to actually diminish. The drawing was crude at best, but where he was expecting to see some stupid, childish picture of a bunny or other such cutsey thing there was just the both of them. Small stick figures at best, but it was easy to tell who was who by the hair on the round little heads. What made Riku crack the hint of a smile was the way those figures seemed to be holding their stick hands together.

“I guess it does brighten the place up a bit,” he answered Sora since the other boy seemed to be awaiting it with hopeful eyes.

There was a sudden happy noise from Sora followed by a hug that Riku had never expected to receive. The boy was much too stunned to return it, but it didn’t seem to matter to Sora since he was perfectly happy just to give.

From outside of the cave a muffled voice called out a name that was familiar to one of the boys. It broke up their happy moment and caused Sora to pull away as he listened out, hearing it again and realizing it was time for him to finally leave.

“That’s my mom,” Sora spoke up and soon stood up with his rabbit still in hand. “I better go. She’ll start to worry if I don’t answer her. I had fun though, Riku. Even if you were really mean at first I’d like to play with you again, okay?”

Riku didn’t even have to think about his answer as he gave a small nod to Sora. “Sure, this island can be ours now.” The bright smile he got for that answer was worth all the annoyance he had to go through when first meeting Sora. He watched as the boy waved and ran out of the cave, listening in as Sora met up outside with his mother and was scolded for still being so wet.

It was when the voices slowly started to fade that Riku turned his eyes back on the drawing. The next time Sora came to the island he would be nicer to the other little boy. Maybe try not to push him into any bodies of water even if it was what had given them a small step towards being friends.