-----sunnyside.

Shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, sunburn on sunburn, sand in shoes, sand in shorts, sand everywhere until they couldn’t possibly take anymore and had decided, wisely, to take a breather down by the pier. After all, it’d been a long afternoon, one loud with the sound of their raucous laughter and shouting as the five of them had kicked, danced and shoved their way down the beach. (As only the very of best of friends were wont to do.) And Sora can’t help but wonder, can’t help but think there couldn’t be much that could compare to this, but he feels even more helpless still, as he looks to Riku, and feels that maybe this comes only second best.

When Sora leans across Riku to take a bite out of Kairi’s panini, Roxas takes the opportunity to bite into Sora’s (briefly) forgotten popsicle and it splits into three pieces around the stick, purple staining his thigh as he cries out through a mouthful of stolen panini (“Hey---!”) and lunges at a laughing Roxas. A snide remark from Tidus has them both leaning to look past Riku and Kairi in unison, both boys flicking popsicle sticks at him until one of them catches in Kairi’s hair and---

There are tears, tears of laughter as Sora doubles over and tries to catch his breath, Roxas desperately clutching at his shoulder as he tries to do the same. “Oh man, are you sure--? That looked nothing like--it wasn’t even close, man! You gave her--” Riku elbows him in the ribs and Sora promptly draws his lips between his teeth and nudges Roxas to do the same, the two of them trying (and failing) not to laugh.

Tidus only frowns, perplexed and turns his drawing back around to face him. “I dunno, I thought it kinda looked like her.” To which Sora and Roxas both nod solemnly, lips sealed and shoulders shaking.

“It does!” Blurts Riku, and the look Kairi gives him then is nothing short of horrified or even betrayed. And before any one of them can get another word in edgewise, the two boys are positively howling with laughter, Sora wheezing something unintelligible through his tears as he sinks from the gazebo bench and onto the floor, both Roxas and Riku grabbing at his arms. (Roxas, without much effort.) Nearby, two old men trying to fish send questioning looks their way.

The afternoon continues on like this, until at last the sun begins to set and five becomes three, and just Sora, Riku and Roxas are left sitting on the pier. The two foster brothers sit elbow to elbow with their legs over the sides of the pier and arms propped on the lowest rail, whereas Riku is a little less keen to lose his phone in froth below and sits with his back against the rail instead. A sort of quiet had settled over the three boys--the most quiet they’ve been all day, broken only by the odd comment. Sora figures, idly swinging his legs and chin in hands, he could go on like this forever: every day, together.

-----don’t freak out (dude, i’m kinda freaking out).

There’s something about the unknown that just... leaves a lot to be desired; y’know, like actually knowing stuff. And Sora can’t help but think, as he gropes blindly around in the dark for Tidus’ hand, that he’d really like to know some stuff right about now. Actually, he’s pretty sure he can pinpoint the exact point on his mental checklist where ‘knowing stuff’ became ‘not-knowing stuff.’ That is, he’d be able to if he had ever kept a mental checklist, because he’s pretty sure all he’s got going on right now is a jumbled mess that sounds a lot like, “oh my god, ohmygod, we’re dead, we died, we’ve been killed, we’re actually dead, my mom is gonna KILL me--” to say the least of it.

Okay, shelving the list thing, here’s about where the night started getting weird. (And, of course, the last time Sora swore he'd known stuff for, like, ever.) First, Tidus had insisted Riku was late, but Sora couldn’t shake the feeling that they were the ones who’d arrived at the wrong place entirely. See, Sora was pretty sure Riku had never been late to meet up ever--not since the time Kairi had convinced him that he’d somehow killed Sora’s pet rock (yeah, seriously) and he’d avoided him until he could find a rock the exact shape. In the end, it turned out that Sora had never actually had a pet rock, it’d been a stone he’d left in his pocket from the last time Sora tried to prove he could, in fact, throw farthest. (Nevermind the fact he’d drawn a face on it. How many times has Sora done everything but his homework?) Point is, Riku was late, late Riku was straight up bizarre.

Second, Sora’s phone just up and died seconds after receiving a text from Roxas. (‘where are you guys?’) While Sora may not keep a mental checklist, he’s got enough mental curses to seal his dead portable charger in its plastic grave for thousands of years--and maybe Tidus while he was at it, since Tidus had decided to leave his phone at home because, “I thought we’d have yours.” Like, o-kay, Tidus. Sora, at the time, thought this made perfect sense of course and, shrugging his way out of that trainwreck, pocketed his own (utterly dead) phone.

Third, Tidus had suggested they find out where they are, as if there was any way he hadn’t known. So of course, why should they, how could they decide to just up and ‘check it out?’ And see, Sora’s always known he could be incredibly naive and at the worst of times, but he was definitely having one of his better moments as he whipped around to blink at Tidus, totally incredulous. Everyone knew what this place was, and everyone also knew that it was totally and completely OFF LIMITS. (Except, Sora vaguely remembers these two kids who’d claimed they’d been there once, brown eyes and--)

Supposedly, it’d been a property venture gone wrong. Or at least, that’s what everyone had been lead to believe. (Words of the local conspiracy theorist.) A wealthy family some hundred, two hundred-odd years ago had sought to build a house on the acres they’d bought, but somehow, for whatever reason, they’d just up and vanished in the middle of construction. The house was never finished and the property never sold again. Since the rights could never be seized by the city, it’d simply been squared off, a little piece of land cut away, leading some to suspect the owners continue to linger in some way--in shadow... and bla-bla-bla, something like that. Sora doesn’t really care anyhow.

He especially doesn’t care as he finally manages to catch Tidus’ sleeve and clutch tight, knuckles going white as the moonlight filtering through skeletal beams. Something somewhere creaks, and Sora can’t help but stop in his tracks, jerking Tidus sharply back. Stairs, it had to be the stairs, someone’s here and they’re definitely not a ghost, but they’re so dead, so, so--silence. Through the chattering of his teeth, he manages, “Look, I’m definitely not freaking out, but I feel like I should kinda be freaking out?” Another quick glance about and he adds, “Y’know, freaking right outta here--we should go. We should really, really, go.”

@lambencies 🍠