Write about a mess you've cleaned up.

Heh, I clean up a lot of them when Sora and I were younger. He was always making messes, like bringing stray animals home and begging his mom to let him keep them when she found out he'd been hiding them. And then when she said no, he'd beg me to hide them at my house. He always managed to get me to agree, too.

There were only a couple of animals he's done that with, so I guess I didn't really mind. They ended up running off anyway.

After that, Sora's mom finally let him get a pet so he would stop bringing animals home. A cat or a dog was too much hastle, so she let him get a hamster. He loved that thing to death and I could never understand why. It was just a little fuzzball that crapped and slept all the time. Anyway, he named it Buttons and got it a wheel for it to run on, and when it got running, the wheel screeched. It was like nails on a chalkboard and it drove me crazy whenever I'd go over to his house.

One night, I had stayed the night at Sora's. I was already having a rough night and hearing that god forsaken sound was just pushing me over the edge. How the hell Sora could manage to sleep through it, I'll never know. Then again, he sleeps through everything when he finally dozes off.

So when he got up to go to the bathroom, I decided to try and scare it so maybe it would stop that stupid noise. I guess I wasn't thinking when I decided to throw a shoe at it, but I was seven. Give me break. I hadn't actually meant to hit it either.

It was supposed to just hit the wall, but my aim was... way off, and it hit the cage and knocked it over onto its side. I was kicking myself then, and tore out of bed to go set the cage upright and hide the show. When I set the cage up, I realized it wasn't moving. Just... laying there. So I put it back on its wheel and told Sora it had gotten tired and fallen asleep when he saw it. But even though the stupid wheel had stopped screeching, I still couldn't get to sleep.

Talk about some major guilt tripping.

I finally told him after a couple of days, and by then he had already noticed something was up. God, he was so mad at me. He was in tears, asking why I would do something like that. I didn't really know how to answer, because the real reason wasn't reason enough and it would have only made him angrier. I'd tried to get him a new hamster, but he didn't want it. And I'd kept trying to apologize, but he hadn't wanted that either.

He wouldn't talk to me for a week, maybe longer than that.

After a while, he finally started letting go of his grudge. I'm pretty sure his mom helped, even though she was furious at me when she found out, too. Unfortunately, he hasn't let me live it down yet. Any chance he gets, he calls me a "hamster killer", even if he's just joking.

It was just an ACCIDENT, okay? I never wanted to kill it. I am not a hamster killer, nor do I enjoy the killing of hamsters or any other animal in any way. Got it?

- - -
Name: Riku.
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts.
Words: 574
Dedicated to Rav. Lulz. ;)

"That's something I think is growing on me as I get older: happy endings." -- Alice Munro

You know, I was never one of those kids that believed in happily ever afters. I suppose I liked watching cartoons and shows with happy endings as much as the next kid, but I knew there was no such thing. Everyone wants to believe eternal happiness is just around the corner for them, but then you grow up. Some quicker than others. I'm not a pessimist, but this is the real world. You have to work for everything you want. It's not going to be handed to you on a silver platter.

I went on a quest for freedom and adventure, and the results I had expected were far from what I received. If I had ever believed, even a sliver of belief, in happy endings before, I had stopped then. So I cast aside the possibility and did what I thought I had to do. Happy endings aren't real and I shouldn't expect to have one.

But I guess I was wrong.

Happy endings can be real. No, they aren't handed to you, but if you're willing to have some drive, they happen. It just takes a little more than wishing upon a star like all those fairy tales make you believe. I guess you could say Sora and Kairi opened my eyes. They made me realize that everyone deserves a chance to be happy, even if you feel like you don't. Everyone makes mistakes and you shouldn't punish yourself for making a few wrong choices as long as you strive to be better.

Anyway, happy endings have sort of grown on me since then. I still don't expect them, but I work to achieve them instead.

I mean, look where it's gotten me now.

- - -
Character: Riku.
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts.
Words: 281

If you could be in the Olympics (summer or winter), what event/sport would you want to do most? Why?
If there was something besides fencing with the use of swords, I'd choose that. Fencing is all right if you're just in it for the strategy, but when I sword fight, I like a real fight, not some flimsy-sworded poke fest.

That said, a triathlon might be good if I were better at cycling. So that just leaves running and swimming. I'm great at both, but if I had to choose, I'd probably say swimming. If there's one thing aside from sword fights that I can beat anyone at, it would be that. When we were younger, the other kids and I would have days where we would set up competitions of our own. We'd have running, swimming, sword fights, soccer games-- stuff like that. We'd always go to our island first thing in the morning and drag our competitions out the whole day.

Anyway, there was usually no contest in the sword fighting and swimming. Sora was the only one who could ever keep up with me in both. He still lost, but hey. At least he could keep up.

It does make me wonder how many of the other guys just stopped trying after a while. Tidus was a great swimmer but he always got peeved at losing to Sora and me. Wakka was worse sometimes. At least Selphie and Kairi were in it for fun; they never seemed to care who won or lost.

Well, whatever. It was a long time ago and I got off track.

I've lived on Destiny Islands my whole life so it's like second nature to be able to swim. I just hit it up a notch by being able to swim faster. So competing in the swimming events? Yeah, that would suit me well. I'm always looking for a good challenge.

- - -
Muse: Riku.
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts.
Words: 296.

What principles are sacrosanct in your opinion?

Riku had been through a lot, there was no doubt about that, and with that came the regret of things he'd done in the past. So when DiZ asked him what principles he thought were sacrosanct, it threw him a little off guard. In silence, he thought for a moment. It only took looking into the mirror at his altered shape to know his answer, but he didn't need it. Ever since he had decided to take this form, he knew the answer.

"The ones I never should have tresspassed on: loyalty, friendship..."

With an unseen melancholic look underneath his hood, he turned and stepped through the hallway leading to the room that held his best friend. He placed a gloved hand on the glass pod, looking through at the sleeping boy. A year ago, he threw his loyalty and friendships away for darkness and when he realized what he had done was wrong, it was too late. He should have never crossed that line, and maybe this would have never happened if he hadn't. Maybe they would all be back home, where Sora wouldn't be slumbering to regain his memory and Riku wouldn't be trapped in the wretched body of his worst enemy.

His friends trusted and had faith in him, and he had just thrown it in their faces. But he was repenting for that now; he was prepared to make amends for betraying his friends and those sacrosanct principles. He was doing everything in his power to wake Sora so that he could repair what was undone.

And if it meant living as a being of darkness for the rest of his life, so be it.

- - -
Muse: Riku.
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts.
Words: 275.