Discount Word Emporium

Sora crossed his arms and glared; Riku, being Riku, didn't seem to care. "Come on," he drawled, "it's really good."

In Riku's outstretched hand was one arm of a paopu fruit, plump and ripe and dripping juice onto his fingers. More juice still gleamed around Riku's mouth. And that was the part that made Sora stop, of course, because while paopu was delicious you didn't just go around sharing them with anyone. Even your best friend. Maybe especially your best friend, and especially especially when that best friend was an utter bastard and knew the consequences and was doing it anyway.

Riku's hand was perfectly steady, of course, even as he lifted the rest of the fruit in his other hand and took a big bite. "Mm, perfect," he said around the lump in his cheek. "Probably won't be any more of these this season. Shame you're going to miss out."

Sora watched as Riku chewed, still somehow managing to keep up that infuriating smile in the process. And as he watched, Sora carefully weighed his options, balancing the small matter of a lifetime of paopu-induced binding against the fact that he really couldn't let Riku get away with this and still be able to look at himself in the mirror. It was a matter of honour. More than that, it was his duty as a friend to knock that smug look right off Riku's face. Right. He could do this.

Sora steeled himself and reached out. He grabbed the offered piece of fruit, stuffed it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed before he could reconsider.

He didn't really register the strange look on Riku's face until after, when it was too late to take it back.

"You actually did it," Riku said. His smirk was gone. "I didn't think you would."

"Shows what you know," Sora shot back automatically. "Wait," he said then, "what? You mean you--" He studied Riku's eyes, the vaguely horrified look that Sora was pretty sure he wasn't imagining. "You big faker!" he yelled, smacking Riku's shoulder. "What did you do that for?"

"Well I didn't think that you'd actually eat it, King Superstition." Riku scrubbed a hand through his hair and kind of shied away when Sora took a step forward. "No, you know what," he went on, too loud, "it doesn't matter. It doesn’t matter because it's just a load of crap, it's a kid's story and we're way too old for that now."

"Right," Sora agreed faintly. "Definitely."

"So we should just--"

"Forget about it. It's not like--"

"No. No, it's really not."

"Right."

"Right."

"So, you wanna--"

"Yeah."

Breathing out a shaky sigh, Sora turned towards the beach and their obstacle course there. After a few steps, though, he drifted to a halt and played back the last few seconds of conversation in his head. He turned to Riku very slowly, finding Riku turning right back towards him, and for a stretched-out second of uncomfortable silence they stared at each other, wide-eyed.

"Kairi," they said at the same time, and took off for the boats.

***

The knock on her door was unexpected but not necessarily surprising-- Sora and Riku knew she was home doing chores that day, but it didn't always stop them if they got some idea in their heads. So Kairi just slung the dish towel over her shoulder and went to answer the door.

Her automatic smile of greeting faded when she saw the wild look in her boys' eyes. "What's wrong?" she said, stepping outside and shutting the door behind her. She pushed on Riku's shoulder until he sat down on the top step, and Sora wordlessly followed his lead, as always. "What happened?"

She stood in front of them and listened as they poured out the entire story. She pressed her lips together firmly when they were about halfway through. She bit her tongue when she noticed the paopu stem that Riku probably didn't realize he was still clutching in one hand. By the time they got to the end of it, though, she couldn't hold it in any longer.

She burst out laughing.

Far from having the desired effect, their identical affronted glares just made her laugh even harder. "Kairi! This is serious!"

Biting her lip for control, she coughed out a few last laughs before managing to stop entirely. "Sorry," she said. "Okay. Stop panicking, I'm pretty sure you're all right."

"But Kairi," Sora wailed, "we're, like--"

"Finishing each other's sentences and stuff," Riku cut in, then flinched.

Sora's eyes, if possible, got even wider. "See?"

"Yes," Kairi said patiently, "but you guys have always done that. You never noticed?"

They stared at her for long moments, then turned to look at each other, blinking slowly. Kairi leaned against the porch railing and started laughing again.

It was depressingly easy to sneak around the Kimlascan royal residence. The guards around the perimeter and at the city gates were all right-- or they were now, anyway, he'd seen to that himself-- but once you were inside the palace? So long as you were careful, stayed out of the main halls, you could go anywhere and not see another soul.

He probably should have words with the guard captain about that. But that could wait until after the wedding; right now, it was suiting him just fine.

Centuries of Kimlascan tradition dictated that the betrothal before a royal marriage lasted a year and a day. Centuries of tradition also required a promised couple to be escorted when together, and to sleep apart until their wedding night. It was ridiculous, really, since there was no tradition controlling what the couple did before they became betrothed, but the moment there was a ring involved everything changed.

So what Asch was doing at that moment was technically forbidden. Not that he gave a shit. Natalia didn't seem to care either, and whatever she'd said to her maids had so far kept them discreet. So like hell he was going to hold them to some long-dead court matron's protocol just because it was there. They both knew all too well how tenuous life was, how quickly chance could turn against you. Waiting for no good reason was really not going to happen.

He ghosted through the last hallway, tapped quietly at a door. It opened, and Natalia smiled at him through the crack.

Asch slipped inside and shut the door behind him.