Like the Flowers Love the Sun || SoRiku

🌻s u n f l o w e r🌻

When Riku was little, he felt like maybe he didn't really exist until Sora showed up. His mom has pictures of them sharing cake at his 3rd birthday and Sora's mom has pictures of them bathing together when they were a little older than that.

When Riku was 6 and Sora was 5 and they were the only kids who'd ever stayed on the play island, Riku was in love. It was messy the way kids are. He hadn't called it love, hadn't even known what love really was back then, but he'd told Sora that they'd always be together and that would have been enough for him.

Then Kairi showed up.

When Riku turned 16, Sora was still 15 and in love with Kairi. Riku had spent years learning to understand his feelings especially when puberty first hit and he wasn't interested in any of the girls at school. When he thought Sora was the prettiest person he'd ever met. When he thought Sora was a sunflower.

Now that Riku's 18 he's gotten used to the bloody flowers bursting from his lungs. Loving Sora was as easy as breathing. He wonders if that's why it started to hurt so much. He doesn't know when it started, but he knows how it will end. He'll be found dead in his room with lungs full of hibiscus flowers and that'll be the end for him. He tries not to let it get to him too much, because he still has Sora now. As a friend at least, his best friend, and he wouldn't want anything about that to change.

"Riku!" Sora calls happily as he skates down the lane before gripping onto a strap on the taller boy's book bag.

"Hey, Sora," Riku responds softly, but he never stops moving. His foot kicks off the ground a little harder now that he's got Sora and they head up the hill towards the high school. Riku wasn't an excellent skateboarder by any means. He couldn't do tricks like either of Sora's brothers, but it was enough to get them both to school in one piece and had been for the last few years. When he takes a turn too sharply and Sora brushes against his shoulder, it's almost like he can feel the petals fluttering around in his chest.

"Did you do the homework for Mr. Vexen's class?"

"Did you?"

"Uh...most of it."

"I'll help you in first block," Riku says but it doesn't come out as relaxed as he wishes it would. Sora doesn't seem to mind as he cheers and skates ahead so that Riku can see him twirl on his wheels happily.

"Thanks, Riku! You're the best!"

Riku knows he should leave it at that, just laugh and change the subject, but he doesn't. He picks at the scab on his heart, lets the flowers rattle in his lungs.

"Better than Kairi?" There's a teasing smirk on his face but he isn't joking in the slightest.

"Of course you are," Sora says without missing a beat then he freezes, they both do. "I...I just mean you and Kairi are both my friends f-for different reasons and you're both the best at that."

Riku can see the blush blooming onto Sora's face before the younger boy turns away to hide it and something about that calms the flowers blooming in his chest. He burps out a single white petal and watches as it floats through the air, the wind nuzzling it against Sora's cheek before it flies off into the grassier portions of the island.

"You're my best friend too, Sora," Riku says, his voice quiet. Sora hears him anyway, he always does, and sends him a sunshine smile.

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Riku's chest hurts.

It's a thumping pain. An I-broke-two-ribs-falling-out-of-a-tree-with-Sora kind of pain, and he'd know. He's broken two ribs falling out of a tree with Sora before.