InsaneJournal

[fic] Kingdom Hearts 2, "Victory Conditions"
Victory Conditions
Kingdom Hearts 2 (post-game)
So/Ri/Kai, emphasis on Sora/Riku
Safe for work.



It was a pretty good friendship now, overall. A bit more balanced. Not that it wasn't before, you know, but back then, Riku really had considered himself better than Sora. Probably because, Sora knew, he really, really was. It had been annoying, but constant. Admittedly, a good amount of Sora’s losses could be put down to Riku changing the victory conditions at the last minute – a habit he’d never shaken even when he was moping about in a black coat in the World that Never Was, to judge by the way Riku had handed over the map and then muttered, "I got the map before Saix noticed me, so I won." It was always disconcerting, and Sora suspected it informed Riku’s lack of dating habits, but that was neither here nor there.

The thing is, they’d got that out, up front, and evened the territory. Riku had admitted he’d always been jealous of Sora. It was all honest and open and clean, but.

Old habits died hard, Sora sometimes thought.

And their old habits were habits of constantly competing, with, in the end, Kairi deciding the winner and sharing in the victory with both of them. It hadn't been a bad way, just – an old way. One they were used to.

So he should have been suspicious of something being up when they’d gone to the Coliseum and, when they’d appeared in the Underworld, Riku told Sora to "Wait here a minute, stay right here, there’s something I want to do," and then dragged Kairi up. Sora hated waiting places, especially when Kairi and Riku were someplace else. But before he could follow anyway, Sora, Donald, and Goofy had just happened to oversee this guy with a harp who was having issues, so they offered to help him out, and the whole thing had gotten a little weird by the time the singing head came into things, but it was the Underworld, so weird was expected. Then, on the way back, there'd been a situation with Auron and this overgrown tick thing, but it hadn’t been that hard to kill and besides, it was pretty awesome to see Auron again.

By the time they’d actually made it back to the point where Riku had told them to wait right at, Riku and Kairi were playing their ten billionth game of Go Fish – Kairi winning by at least seven books, Sora saw admiringly – and Riku was rather sour. He snapped at Sora in that vague, sarcastic way he sometimes got, which made Sora snap back, and then they fought a little, which ended with Kairi calling foul and declaring it both a tie. But. Okay. It was a tie with Riku sitting on Sora and pulling his hair.

Anyway, that whole thing Sora decided to forgive him for, because the fact that Riku hit him meant that Riku had forgiven him for taking so long to get back. It was a bit messed up, but they understood it all, and Kairi just rolled her eyes and said "Boys," to Donald, who agreed, then looked very suspicious for some reason.

But it didn;t make it less annoying when they went up to visit Hercules and saw that Riku had his name listed in first place for a single fighter in all the competitions.

There was even the Love-Love Duo Tournament match, previous victors Hercules and Megara, though someone had scratched Meg’s name out for some reason. They'd since been bumped to second place; Riku and Kairi had won that one together. Riku laughed as Sora sputtered at him, then asked him what he was getting so worked up for.

"It’s not like a tournament actually decides that sort of thing," Riku said.

Riiiiight, Sora thought. He noticed much later that Riku hadn't actually said it wasn’t true.

But then, Riku wasn't the one with his silhouette in the stars. THAT was one thing he wouldn’t top.

So, he figured that made them pretty much even, though he totally dropped Sebastian down the back of Riku's shirt when they went to Atlantica’s upper world to see how Ariel was doing in married life.

Of course, two hours later:

"...What do you mean, you won first prize in the underwater karaoke contest?!"

"Something about that hard to understand, Sora?"

"You can't even sing!" Truthfully, he couldn’t. (Sora, however, ever since the end of their adventures in the World that Never Was, found himself able to sing quite nicely, if with a slightly embarrassing, pop-star edge to his voice.)

"Yeah, well. If we're throwing accusations around, you gave me crabs."

Kairi's horrified laughter had been the icing on a particularly annoying cake. Sora went and did the musical trial himself, just to put an end to that. Riku seemed to enjoy that way too much.

Riku refused the trip to Beast's Castle for some reason, but by the time they made it around to Radiant Garden to check in with everyone – Kairi was particularly excited to see Leon's gang; it had been over a year since she’d seen them, Sora remembered – Sora may have mentioned Space Paranoids and the horrible, horrible game grid they’d had to fight on, and then Riku got that glint in his eye.

"Oh no you don’t."

"You don’t want to?"

They ended up side by side on the light cycles, waiting for the timer to tick down.

"The real winner," Riku said, "is whoever makes the most heartless hit the walls."

"Wha—" and then they were off and Sora skimmed way, way too many walls for his liking. By the time they stumbled off the bikes, his pixels were bruised. He peered at the upper left hand corner of the screen. 32! Awesome! ...Of course, the upper right said 33.

"You have to really hug that last turn," Riku said, helpfully.

Now, Twilight Town meant skateboards. Sora was actually anticipating this one. He knew skateboards. He knew skateboards well. Riku, however, still hadn't learned to pull his pants up over his ass. It was a guaranteed win.

"Whoever wins," Sora said, "has to buy the other some ice cream." There was a fluttering in his chest, like anticipation. Or maybe hunger.

They waited by the starting line. Riku said, "If I win. I get to kiss the person I want to."

Sora wondered what the hell that meant and besides, Riku'd SAID the stupid Love-Love competition wasn't important and – crap. He took off a moment later, jumping up and grinding across an edge.

By the time they both had crossed the distance they'd chosen to perform the most feats in, Sora had passed the line over fifteen seconds before Riku had.

"Well," Riku said. "Guess I owe you that ice cream."

It had probably been another stupid Riku joke, like that paopu thing back when. Sora waited while Riku forked over the money to get ice cream for the three of them, then ate his ice cream loudly and with gusto to show off his victory.

As he was licking his fingers, Riku said, "You missed a spot here," and thumbed over Sora's lip, then lifted his thumb to his own mouth, licking the ice cream off that.

"Oh," Kairi said. She sounded pretty pleased, giving Riku a beaming smile.

Sora stared up at Riku and felt his cheeks heat.

Riku grinned.

And Sora had the weirdest feeling that Riku had, somehow, beat him again.