It was a bright, sunny day on Destiny Islands, as usual. Everyone was hanging out on the beach. Sora and Wakka were having a match while Tidus, Kairi and Selphie watched from the pier. Riku was seated on his usual tree, staring out to sea.

"Hey, man, take this!" Wakka yelled, leaping high into the air and launching his Blitzball as hard as he could at Sora.

Sora swung his wooden sword as the ball hurtled closer and knocked it out to sea.

"Yay Sora!" Kairi yelled.

Selphie and Tidus laughed and cheered...until the ball snacked into Riku and knocked him into the sea.

Sora's happiness vanished in an instant. "RIKU!" he yelled, running into the sea.

The silver-haired boy in question was unmoving, floating face down in the water. Sora swam up to him and dragged him back to shore. Their friends gathered around him as he laid Riku on his back in the sand.

"Oh my God, is he all right?" asked Selphie, very worried.

Sora pressed and ear to Riku's chest, grateful for the CPR lessons he had hated at the time. Hearing no heartbeat, he began chest presses.

Water bubbled out of Sora's mouth and he coughed, pushing himself into a sitting position.

"Riku, you're okay!" Sora cried, throwing his arms around his best friend.

"Um...yeah..." Riku replied, rubbing his head. "Um...who are you?"

Sora gaped. "W-what? Riku, stop joking around!"

Confusion crossed his friend's face. "I'm not joking. I don't know who any of you are. And stop calling me Riku! My name is Rachael."

There was a moment of silence and then...

"Oh shit."

Riku, or Rachael as it was now, glared at the five teenagers surrounding him…er, her.

“Don’t swear in front of girls. It isn’t nice,” the green eyed teen said.

“Sorry,” apologised Tidus. “Um…how are you feeling?”

“My head hurts and I’m wet and cold,” complained Ri-er, Rachael.

Kairi and Selphie looked at each other, then nodded.

“We’ll take care of Rachael,” Kairi said, helping  her addled friend to his feet. “Come on, Selphie. We girls should stick together.”

The two girls led Riku off to the boats, leaving Sora, Tidus and Wakka alone on the beach.

“I’m going to have to tell his parents what happened…” Sora groaned, collapsing backwards on to the sand. “His mother is going to skin me alive for this!”

“Hey, better you than me, man,” Wakka said. “I’m gonna go find my ball.” He ran off into the sea to find it.

“Sorry, man,” Tidus said sympathetically. “Wish I could help but I like living too much.” He shuddered. “Riku’s mother is freakin’ scary when she’s angry!”

Sora whimpered pathetically, widening his eyes to give Tidus his best puppy dog look.

The blond closed his eyes tightly. “Not working! Not workingnotworkingnotworking!” he screamed, running away.

And Sora was left on the beach thinking about his imminent doom.

________________________________________ ______________________________

Some time later, Sora was still agonising over how to tell his friend’s mother that Riku now thought he was Rachael.

“Oh god, oh god, oh god!” Sora muttered, pacing back and forth in his room. “I’m going to die! She’s going to skin me and eat me raw!”

Riku’s mother was one of the scariest people Sora had ever met when she was in a bad mood. When she was in a good mood, she was almost angelic but angry…demons would flee in terror!

And Sora would have to face her alone.

Sora’s torment was ended when he received a phone call from Kairi.

“I just got a call from Tidus. He was feeling guilty about leaving you to face Rachael’s mother alone,”  Kairi told him.

“As he should,” muttered Sora.

“Yeah, well, I thought that you’d still be worrying about what to tell her so I phoned up and told her he’s staying with me and Selphie for a study party tonight,” replied the redhead.

“Lifesaver!” Sora cried. “That’s great! Wish I’d thought of that…”

Kairi laughed. “Silly Sora.”

Sora pouted though his friend couldn’t see it.

“Don’t pout, Sora, I’m only teasing,” said Kairi.

“How did you know? You’re watching me, aren’t you? You have hidden cameras in my room!” accused Sora. “Oh god, you watch me sleeping, don’t you?!”

On the other end, Kairi was suppressing giggles. “See you tomorrow, Sora,” she said, hanging up.

Sora looked around nervously, trying to spot the hidden cameras. Kairi hadn’t denied their existence, after all. Maybe his fears were correct…but on the other hand…

“Yes! I get to live another day!” the teen yelled, punching the air.

________________________________________ ______________________________

The next morning, Sora met Selphie on the pier.

“Riku still thinks he’s Rachael,” she said. “And he’s feeling a little shy. He wants to talk to you in the cove.”

“Okay, thanks,” replied the spiky brunet, running off.

He found Riku sitting in the shade of the coconut trees and his jaw dropped.

Riku was wearing a pink, poofy summer dress and matching sandals. A large straw hat kept the sun from his eyes.

“Ri-Rachael, hi,” Sora greeted.

Riku looked up and took in the expression. “Oh, I knew it!” he cried, turning away. “You hate this dress!” he wailed, burying his head in his arms.

“What?!” Sora blinked. “No, no, Rachael! The dress looks fine!”

“Fine? Fine?! That’s just another way of saying ‘awful’!” wailed Riku loudly.

“That’s not what I meant! I’ve just never seen you in pink before,” Sora said, utterly confused. Had his friend developed female hormones as well as the female mentality? He was sort of glad he decided to leave out the part where he’d never seen Riku in a dress, let alone a pink one. “You look…” The spiky brunet looked Riku up and down.

The way the wind blew the dress meant Sora could make out every line of Riku’s body, from the curve of his ass to him long legs.

“…Great. You look great, Rachael,” finished Sora.

Riku slowly turned around. “You mean that?”

“I mean that,” echoed Sora.

Riku grinned and threw his arms around the younger boy. “Yay! Thank you! I hoped you would like it…Err, I mean…uh…” Riku stepped back shyly, gaze fixed on a spot somewhere between his feet.

“So, Selphie said you wanted to talk to me?” Sora said, deciding to ignore his friend’s really strange behaviour and put it down to the head injury.

“Yeah,” Riku replied. “I want you to help me get my memories back. Kairi told me we were best friends before I hit my head and she thinks you have the best chance of restoring my memories.”

“All right,” Sora agreed. Anything to get his friend back to normal as soon as possible! “Where do you want to start?”

Riku shrugged. “Tell me what we used to do together.”

Sora began telling tales of everything he and Riku used to do, from playing together in the sand as children to racing and sparring.

“That doesn’t sound very…girly…” said Riku slowly.

“Well, you were a tomboy,” replied Sora, thinking quickly. He had no idea if going along with Riku’s delusion that he was a girl named Rachael was a good idea but decided to do so anyway. He just hoped he’d never have to go through this again!

“What about my favourite things? I really don’t remember anything…” moaned Riku.

“Well, your favourite spot to sit is on the paupu tree,” Sora said.

“Will you show me?” asked Riku, looking at him shyly. And was he blushing?!

Sora grinned. “Sure, come on!” He held out his hand to Riku, who took it gently. The younger boy pulled Riku around the island until they stood at the base of the tree.

Strangely, no one else was around. Sora’s boat was the only one tied at the pier, meaning Riku had ridden on Selphie’s boat and would require a ride from Sora later.

“This is your usual spot,” said Sora, pointing up at the tree.

“Oh? Will you help me up?” requested Riku.

Sora complied, helping Riku on to the tree without damaging the dress. The spiky haired boy wondered briefly who Riku had borrowed the dress off and decided it must have been Kairi. Selphie wasn’t much for pink, preferring yellow most of the time.

“Seem familiar?” asked Sora.

Riku gazed out to sea. “A-a little. I still don’t remember anything but I know I like this place. It’s so peaceful, tranquil and quiet.” He watched the waves a moment longer. “What about other things? Favourite food? Music? Movies?”

“Well, you love vanilla ice cream, rock music and horror movies,” Sora began. “You hate jelly and sappy, clichéd romance films.”

Riku nodded, taking it all in. “Can we go get some ice cream then?” he asked.

“All right,” said Sora. He held out his hand to help his friend down from the tree.

The silver haired boy took it with a shy smile. Sora found himself blushing and wondering why.

‘What’s the matter with me? This is still Riku, whether he thinks he’s a girl or not!’

The blush stayed as Sora rowed back to the main island. Riku sat daintily opposite him, gaze averted.

Once on land, Sora took Riku to their favourite ice cream parlour. He ushered the older boy into a booth and went to order ice cream for them both.

Riku’s usual choice was vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce so Sora ordered that. He himself had chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles.

Whenever he ordered that combination, Riku would wrinkle his nose and tell Sora that one day he would turn into chocolate if he kept eating vast amounts. Sora would laugh and deny that he ate too much.

This time when he brought the ice cream over, Riku only looked at it with interest and began eating silently.

Sora found himself missing his best friend terribly in that moment. The person sitting opposite him was both Riku and not Riku.

“Do you like it?” he asked after a while.

Riku nodded. “It’s very nice. Can I try some of yours?”

Sora pushed his bowl over to him. “Sure.”

Taking a tiny bit on to his spoon, Riku tried the triple chocolate mix. “A bit to chocolaty for me,” he said thoughtfully.

Grinning, Sora replied, “That’s the same thing you said the first time I ordered this!”

That brought a smile to Riku’s face. “So I’m not completely gone then.” He looked thoughtful. “How long ago was it that we first came here?”

Sora shrugged. “We’ve been coming here for years. I got this on our third trip and you had the vanilla with caramel sauce. We tried each others and you said mine was ‘too chocolaty’ and I said yours was too plain,” he answered, thinking back with a small smile on his face.

Surprise crossed Riku’s face. “Years? You’ve remembered that for so long?”

Sora blushed hotly. “Well, you’re my best friend and you mean a lot to me.”

This time, Riku definitely blushed, cheeks tinged a shade of pink that matched his dress. “How much do I mean to you, Sora?”  

“Lots,” whispered Sora, a little embarrassed to admit it. “More than anyone else.”

Riku’s blush heightened. “Thank you, Sora.”

They finished their ice creams and left, walking back down to the beach. The sun was setting by the time they got there and the sky had turned pinky-orange. It was a beautiful sight.

“Today has been wonderful. Thank you, Sora,” Riku began. “You’ve been so kind and patient with me.”

“Whether you remember or not, you’re still my best friend, Ri-Rachael,” replied Sora. “I want to help you get back to your old self.”

Riku lunged forward suddenly and pulled Sora into a tight hug.

Surprised, Sora instinctively hugged back. Riku didn’t hug often and the younger boy had always cherished the moments when he did. The brunet boy was more affectionate than Riku and was usually the one to hug his friends. The times when Riku instigated a hug were special to Sora.

The taller teen drew back slightly, straw hat knocked askew by Sora’s hair. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have done that…”

‘He’s beautiful…’ was the thought that crossed Sora’s mind at that point. The light of the sunset made Riku seem to glow.

“Ah…um…I don’t mind,” he replied, not releasing his hold on his amnesiac friend.

“Sora…” Riku murmured. “Can…can I kiss you?” He blushed.

Sora blushed too. “Wh-why?”

“Because I like you. Because you’ve been so kind today and because…I think I love you,” replied Riku.

‘Oh god… Remember, he thinks he’s Rachael now. Rachael!’ But Sora could not deny the fact that he wanted to kiss Riku too.

So he did.

It was a sweet, innocent meeting of lips until Riku took the initiative and deepened it, opening his mouth slightly and teasing Sora’s lips with his tongue until he did the same.

Suddenly Riku pulled away, wrenching out of Sora’s grasp. “No…no, not like this...” he muttered. “Sora, I’m so sorry!” He turned to run away.

Sora caught his arm. “Wait, what? What do you mean?”

Riku turned back, fear, shame and regret etched across his face. “I lied to you, Sora. There never was any amnesia. I just wanted to get back at you for knocking me into the water but then… I thought I’d take advantage of the situation.”

Sora felt utterly confused. “Riku?”

“I love you, Sora,” confessed Riku. “I’ve wanted to go out with you for the longest time but I always thought you’d reject me because I’m a boy too. Pretending to be Rachael let me pretend I had a chance.” Riku looked down, wiping his eyes. “If you hate me now, I’ll understand…”

Sora reached out to pull Riku into a hug. “Silly Riku,” he said.

“What?” Riku blinked at Sora. This was not the reaction he had been expecting.

“Even if you really did think you were a girl who wanted to kiss me, you still have a boy’s body,” Sora said, smiling up at Riku. “If I didn’t want a boy to kiss me, I wouldn’t have let you. Besides, I started that kiss, meaning I wanted to kiss you too.”

“Oh.”

Sora’s smile turned into a wide grin. “Silly Riku,” he said again. “One thing though… A pink dress? Even if you did think you were a girl, there are less girly things to wear.”

Riku flushed pink. “Kairi picked it out. I let her in on my plan but I let her think I was just doing it out of revenge.” He thought for a moment. “Wait. You said I looked good in this!”

Sora shrugged. “You do. It shows off your legs.” He let a mischievous smile on to his face. “And your ass,” he added, reaching for it and giving it a squeeze.

Riku yelped. “Hey! Oh, I’m gonna get you for that!”

Sora burst out laughing and ran across the beach, Riku hot on his tail. They didn’t get far before Riku tackled him to the ground.

“Oof! Hey, that’s not very girly, Rachael!’ Sora taunted as Riku rolled him over.

Riku scowled. “Shut up!”

A cheeky grin spread over Sora’s face. “Make me.”

So Riku did.