Love Love Contest! Fight!

Disclaimer: Don’t own KH characters or rights.

Warning: shonen-ai (boy x boy romance), crude humor, language, SoraRiku below.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter nine: Pride and Brain Power

Previously…

“Thanks.” Tidus was grateful for Sora’s acceptance. “Hey, Riku didn’t… tell you anything else, did he?”

“Tell me what?”

“Nothing.” Tidus’ lips pulled into a smile. “Congratulations.”

----

Ever since the incident with Riku’s detention and what happened in the bathroom, Sora could no longer think straight again without his thoughts deviating to some extent. It was driving him crazy, and he was scared about what was happening to himself. Kairi had visited Sora’s house less often because she had, on several occasions, heard sounds coming from Sora’s bathroom. And Sora’s grades were seriously beginning to slip.

In other words, Sora couldn’t wait to get more of Riku.

But he knew he couldn’t. He couldn’t run up and confront to Riku about how much he loves Riku. He promised both himself and Riku that he won’t say it until it was the right time.

“Pst! Sora! It’s 6.67 times 10 to the negative eleventh!”

Sora turned to the whisperer. It was Kairi. “Huh?”

“6.67 times 10 to the negative eleventh! The universal gravitational constant!” Her eye was gazing back and forth between him and the physics teacher at the front of the classroom.

“Well, Sora? Do you have an answer?” The teacher eyed him suspiciously.

The situation finally dawned onto the dumbfounded Sora. “Oh, yeah.” He mumbled before reporting the number Kairi whispered to him. The teacher warned him gently about paying attention in class and continued on with his lecture.

When class ended, Kairi gave Sora a good smack on the head.

“What have you been daydreaming about?!” She crossed her arms.

“Ow!” Sora rubbed his head as he recalled his daydream. It was filled with moans and heat and sweat and skin… Sora shuddered. “Nothing.”

“That means it must have been something.” Kairi noticed the change in Sora’s expression. She was promptly reminded of the reason she visited Sora’s house less. “Oh… my… goodness… Sora. You can’t seriously be…”

“What?” The boy looked at her skeptically. “What? I can’t be what?”

Kairi shook her head, blushing.

“No, Kairi! I wasn’t thinking of…” Sora began blushing too. “My god! I wasn’t thinking about that.” Sora was always a terrible liar. “That’s abhorrent!”

Truth be told, Sora was indeed thinking of doing certain activities with Riku. Except that good, pure little Sora who was the smartest kid in school just couldn’t come out to admit it. He was too stubborn and proud to ever admit it.

“Sora, Ms. Gainsborough is looking for you.” A girl in his class called from the door. Curiously he left Kairi and his embarrassment to follow the girl.

----

“The United Worlds Science Trivia?” Sora’s eyes were wide.

“Yes.” Ms. Gainsborough nodded. “I would like to invite you to be the leader of our school’s team. I’ve reviewed your academic history. You’re an excellent candidate.”

“But I’ve never been to one before.” Sora wasn’t so confident.

“I’m sure you will do fine. Our adviser is very experienced and you are such an arduous student.” The teacher reassured him with a smile. “Besides, it is a rare opportunity for you to meet people from the worlds outside.”

“Okay…” Sora smiled slightly, accepting yet another challenge to his career as a student. The teacher gladly informed him that he will soon meet his teammates. Sora was just a little intimidated about having all the smart kids around him, and directing them as a leader, no less.

----

On Wednesday Sora was kept after school. Ms. Gainsborough called him to her office, claiming that it was time for him to get to know his teammates. Somewhat nervously Sora obliged and descended to the staff room.

He walked in with a heavy heart, and began to scan the people. Immediately he recognized a few students that were perfectly reasonable as candidates for the team. There was a girl, who looked intimidated; a boy who was bright and young; and lastly…

“Riku?!”

The silver-haired boy gave him a half-embarrassed wink, “Hi.”

“Oh great, you already know each other.” Ms. Gainsborough exclaimed lightly with a clap. “That would make things easier—just by a little bit.”

Although Sora uncertainly nodded his head, something in his heart told him that it would not even be close to what Ms. Gainsborough said. Leading a group of intelligent students was one thing; leading Riku was another. He could almost compare his conscience when he was around Riku to a pool of goo; but on top of that—leading him?! It seemed that Sora got more than he bargained for.

----

“Sora, I don’t understand this.” A girl, whom Sora found to be a fellow contestant, raised her arm and asked, “How come the focal length of the lens will be longer in water? Shouldn’t it remain the same?”

“No,” Sora explained among the exasperated sighs of the other participants. “Light always passes through a lens. What determines the focal length is the speed of light in different mediums. In water, the speed of light is much slower, so when light hits the lens, it bends less away from the normal, and when it leaves, it bends even less. So the light that comes out is not much bent, and so the focal length is long.”

The girl merely stared at him confusedly. As Sora continued to try to explain, the other team members began to murmur among themselves. Some were gossiping about how the girl possibly got into the team, some were moaning about how troublesome she is, some were predicting what negative impacts she would bring to the team. Riku observed between Sora and the impatient people with interest.

“I swear, if Ms. Gainborough doesn’t kick her off the team, we’ll lose.” One of the team members, a girl in Riku’s science class, mumbled to her friend.

“Sora, forget it.” Riku suddenly stood up and began saying, “She’s too stupid. I’ll go have Ms. Gainborough take her off the team.”

“Riku…?” Sora looked at him skeptically. “What are you saying?”

“She’s holding all of us up.” He spread his arms out self-righteously. The people behind him nodded and agreed.

“She’s just a little behind.” The brunet frowned. “I can make sure she’ll catch up-”

“Sora.” Riku stared into the brunet daringly. “Leave it.”

The pout on Sora’s face grew bigger until his face bloated up. “No!” He stood up. “We can’t just throw her out like this!”

“Sora…” The girl began to plea quietly.

“If you won’t kick her out, then we’ll just study without you guys.” The girl in Riku’s science class said loudly.

Sora looked at her, and then at Riku who was at her side, and said, “Fine. We’ll study on our own.” With that, he grabbed the girl by the wrist and left the room. He was confused, at best, for Riku’s bizarre behavior. Suddenly a stroke of fear crossed his heart: he had promised Naminé to change Riku. What had he done so far? Riku hadn’t changed from his old snobbish self. At all.

“Sora? You’re hurting me.” The girl’s weak voice pulled Sora back from his mulling.

“Oh, sorry!” The brunet promptly let go of her.

“I’m probably gonna get eliminated this week…” She chuckled bitterly.

“Hm?” Sora raised his brows perplexedly, and then was reminded that she was also in the Love Love Contest. “Oh!”

“Riku probably thinks I’m too stupid for him.” She looked away and leaned on the railings of that floor.

“No, of course not!” Sora tried to reassure her. “To be honest, I don’t know why he was acting like that either. I thought he was a better person than that.”

“You’re disappointed in him?” She asked. Sora nodded. She giggled, “It seems like you know much more about him than I do.”

“Er… Well…” Sora smiled embarrassedly. “It’s never too late to start now.”

----

The competition was to be held in Radiant Garden’s Civic Auditorium. By then the team had almost split up into two—one Riku’s side, with almost everybody in it, and one Sora’s side, with only the girl and him. Sora saw Riku at the entrance and his eyes went dark, hating the notion Riku had come to represent.

At first the trivia went fairly well. Albeit Riku’s side often sabotaged Sora’s voice of opinion, their team was in the leading sector. But the peace only lasted so long until the individual round came. Under the spotlights and the persistent questioning of the judges, the girl fretted and stuttered without being able to give an answer. The girl in Riku’s science class scoffed along with the others quietly.

Sora put a hand on the silent girl’s shoulder and on her arm, giving her spiritual support. He could not speak to her since that would be considered cheating, but his bright blue eyes poured encouragement. She looked at him, and nodded.

“The diffraction pattern would stretch further apart when the diffraction angle increases.” She spoke into the microphone. It was correct and concluded the first session of the competition.

Riku sighed impatiently and left the stage with his group of people. Sora remembered a rude comment from the silver-haired boy about the girl behind his back when the girl was struggling to answer. Angrily he marched up behind Riku.

“Riku!” He called out once he was out in the backstage and grabbed the boy’s wrist, “Come here.”

“What?” Riku smirked at him, placing a hand over the left side of Sora’s nutmeg spikes. The brunet glared up at him, not at all in the mood to comply with Riku’s conceited pretense.

“What do you mean she’s a ‘dumbag’?” Sora questioned.

“Well, it’s true.” Riku looked away. “Besides, isn’t it better? I like smarter people, like you. You shouldn’t help her at all, Sora. You’ll be helping your opponent.”

“Don’t you say that agai-”

“Dumbag, dumbag, dumbag…” Riku began to sing-song playfully.

But without a warning, Sora raised an arm and slapped him hard across the face. His face was red with fury and his eyes were wet. “The Riku I knew wasn’t like this.” He breathed out. “What’d you do to my Riku?!”

The girl who Riku called “dumbag” screamed and rushed to Sora’s side, pulling him away from the silver-haired teen. “Sora! What are you doing?!”

Sora remained silent, anger still burning in his eyes. He swung his arm away from the girl and walked away. What Riku didn’t see was the heartbrokenness inside the brunet.

----

The elimination day came, and Sora was sure that he would be eliminated. He wanted to be eliminated anyway—with the way Riku changed, the brunet didn’t want to continue in this already horrid contest anymore. He was among the first ones to arrive at the photography room. There were, including him, only four contestants left.

“Welcome to the eighth elimination.” The fan club president announced. “We are getting closer to the determination of Riku’s lover. Let us present a comment from Riku:

“‘I understand that my behavior this week was perplexing and irrational. Given this chance I would like to say that it was for the sake of this contest.’” The president folded the paper away. “And now, the first remaining contest is… number 4.”

Sora widened his eyes; it was the girl Riku called “dumbag” on earlier.

“And number 8. Both number six and eleven please step up.” It was then Sora realized that number six was the girl in Riku’s science class and the one that had been harassing number 4. Roxas took over the microphone.

“Another word from Riku.” The brunet was sincerely confused right now. “‘I wanted to test. I wanted to see if that person had the quality to be my lover in the future. I wanted someone who would stand up to me when I was completely wrong. I needed somebody like that to keep me sane. I know my method was heartbreaking, but I wanted to test.’ And that is all he said. Finally, the remaining contestant is… number eleven.”

Sora let out a whimper. He searched for those sea-green eyes among the judges and landed onto them, seeing the smirk on Riku’s face. At the moment the brunet greatly wanted to slap Riku across the face again—only this time, it’s not for anger; but for skeptical joy.