Vanitas had thoughtfully made you and Sora dinner that same night since Aerith and Zack weren't going to be home. It was just the simple spaghetti and meatballs, however the sauce was homemade by Vanitas himself. He seemed so proud of himself as he shoved the plate into your face.
"Be proud I did a thing." He said jokingly.
You giggled a bit and took the plate gratefully before you sat down at the table to dig in. You could feel Vanitas' eyes on you as you ate, which made you come to a realization. You were eating. You didn't make a scene when someone offered you food, you didn't hesitate to take the plate and sit down to eat. You slowly put the fork down and turned to look at Vanitas, who slightly frowned when you stopped.
"I'm doing a thing too." You said, picking up the fork again and twirling the spaghetti around it. "I'm eating."
Vanitas' smile returned as he approach you and sat down in the seat beside you. "Looks like you gained a little too."
You both exchanged smiles before you took another bite, chewing happily just as someone was knocking on the door. Vanitas was ready to stand up until Sora was running down the stairs and screaming, "I got it I got it!" With such excitement Sora threw the door opened and there stood the ever so mysterious Riku. You didn't stop chewing but you kept your eyes on him as he entered the house with his hands inside his pockets.
"Riku and I are gonna hang out tonight." Sora told his brother. "Vanitas made spaghetti do you want some?"
Riku shrugged in response so Sora bounced away to get him a plate whether he wanted it or not. The four of you sat down at the table to eat after Vanitas got up and made a plate for himself. Three of you were awkwardly silent while Sora was rambling away about his day and how happy he was to see Riku and all the fun things they were going to do today. Riku simply nodded his head and let his friend continue to ramble. You and Vanitas watched with amusement.
"Can we go to the park and throw bread at the ducks? It's funny to watch them fly away and then come back when they realize it's food."
Riku smirked at the thought. "Sure we can do that."
"Awesome!" Sora gulped down the rest of his spaghetti and jumped up to throw his plate in the sink. "Riku are you ready?"
Riku looked down at his plate, which still had a good amount of noodles left. He looked back up at Sora, who let out a sigh of disappointment.
"Get the bread ready or something I'll finish up." Riku told him, which made Sora's bright blue eyes light up as he ran over to the cabinets to get the bread.
Vanitas rolled his eyes. "I don't understand how you can be so patient with that boy." He commented.
Riku shrugged. "We grew up together. You get used to it after a while."
You smiled a bit and watched Sora as he bounced around the kitchen gathering certain things so they would be ready to go to the park. You perked your head up when you had an idea.
"Can I come?"
Sora stopped in his tracks to turn and look at you, his eyes grew brighter as a huge smile erupted onto his face. "Of course {Y/N}! You're always welcomed! Vanitas do you wanna come too?"
"Sure, why not?" Vanitas asked as he finished off his plate and went to leave it in the sink. "I'd love to throw bread at the ducks."
"This is gonna be so much fun!" Sora squealed as he shoved more bread into plastic bags so everyone could have their share.
Once all the plates were finished and in the sink, the four of you got ready to go into the park. Sora handed each of you a plastic bag filled with large pieces of bread and the three of you followed him out the door.
The last time you were at the park, you had ran away and Riku just showed up as if he knew you were there. You wanted to believe that it was a huge coincidence, but Riku was such a mysterious person you couldn't help but have the thought that he followed you there. As you walked beside Vanitas, you peeked your head around him to watch Riku and Sora both talking casually. You didn't tune into what they were saying, but Sora seemed excited like usual as he skipped beside his friend and shook the bag around in his hand. Riku had his usual bored face on, but he didn't seem annoyed. With the way his attitude was you would assume he was the type to get impatient easily. However, in reality, he seemed to have a lot of patience.
Vanitas covered your eyesight from the two boys to get your attention. You looked up at him and stuck out your tongue as he chuckled.
"They're opposites aren't they?" He asked as he watched them with amusement. "They get along well though. Since Riku has an 'I don't care' attitude, Sora is drawn to him since he can say and do whatever he wants and Riku just kind of lets it happen."
Their friendship was kind of cute. Maybe Sora saw Riku as a more tolerant older brother since Vanitas was always annoyed with his younger brother. You didn't dare to bring it up in case the thought would ruin Vanitas' good mood. He seemed so much happier lately and you wanted to keep it that way. Seeing your friends happy made you feel the same way.
Seeing the pond in sight made you smile with excitement and push away the thoughts. You've never fed a duck before. Hell you don't even remember seeing a duck up close before. The thought of feeding ducks and have them get close to you made you ecstatic. What were they like? How big were they? Were ducks friendly?
You saw the creatures floating around in the pond, hearing a few 'quacks' here and there as they communicated with one another. You ditched the boys and ran to the edge of the pond, pointing to the ducks with a huge smile on your face.
"They're so cute!" You exclaimed, looking back at the boys as they jogged to catch up with you. "Look look!"
Your attention turned back to the ducks. Their little beaks opening and closing, the way the water dribbled down their backs, their feather colors just intrigued you so much. You opened the plastic bag in your hands and pulled out a piece of bread before holding it out towards the open water. You waited a few seconds, but when they never noticed you, you frowned.
"Why won't they come?" You asked with disappointment.
Vanitas let out an amused chuckle and grabbed your piece of bread before tossing it into the water. The ducks noticed the floating bread and made their way towards it.
"You have to lure them in." Vanitas told you as he grabbed a piece of bread from his own bag and tossed it into the pond. The ducks followed the trail of bread crumbs that Sora and Riku with and swam closer to you. You knelt down and placed some bread crumbs onto the grass in front of you and they waddled onto land and started to eat what you gave them. You smiled with delight and reached out your hand to touch them, but they quickly waddled away from you which resulted in you frowning.
"Throw the bread!" Riku shouted as he threw the biggest chunk he had. Sora and Vanitas followed his actions and threw theirs. The ducks quaked and flew away before they simply landed right back into the pond.
"Then we just lure them back in, scare them off, and keep repeating the process." Riku explained to you.
You couldn't help but giggle. It was quite amusing to watch them fly away only to come back moments later. You wondered how their brain worked. Did ducks have short term memory loss? Or were they comfortable in the pond and didn't want to leave? Or maybe they were just so hungry they decided to come back anyway, despite having bread thrown at them.
You followed the boys' actions and lured the ducks onto land and merely a few feet away. As they were distracted and eating the small crumbs, you and Vanitas threw the larger chunks and they panicked before retreating back to the safety of the pond.
You tossed one last piece of bread into the pond before a huge splashed was made in place of your bread crumb. You were splattered with water and you covered your face to prevent the water from going into your eyes.
"What the fucking hell?!" You heard Vanitas' angry voice as you moved your arms away from your eyes.
You burst into laughter when you finally realized what had happened. Sora was standing in place of Vanitas while the dark haired boy was shaking the water droplets from his hair from inside the pond. Sora fell on the ground laughing as Riku stood on your other side and laughed along with you. Vanitas trudged to the surface before clinging into Sora's wrist and dragging him into the water. The brothers wrestled in the pond and splashed each other, which had water flying everywhere and all the ducks had flown away. The other people who were in the park glared at the amount of disrespect you teenagers were giving, however, none of you cared while you all laughed. Vanitas had dunked Sora into the water and was holding him down underneath while shooting a victorious smile at you.
"We're going to get caught." Riku pointed out. "Get out."
Vanitas released his brother to let him breath before he splashed Riku with as much water as he could. "Jokes on you, I'm a rebel."
Sora was climbing back to land with his tongue sticking out. "Vanny I swallowed some... And ducks swim here... That's disgusting!"
Riku turned to look at you with an amused smirk on his face. "Let's go before they dunk us in too."
Riku grabbed your hand and started running away. You giggled at the brothers before following Riku away from them as they were yelling for you to return. Riku never released your hand as he dragged you to just outside the park where the brothers couldn't see you, then he released your hand.
"I didn't want them dragging me in as well." Riku sighed. "I'm not getting in trouble later for swimming in that disgusting pond."
You chuckled and waited for Vanitas and Sora to show up. You looked into the park and expected them to show up, but Riku blocked your view, his hands in his pockets.
"Huh?" You asked as you lifted your head to make eye contact. He was taller than you after all.
"One more thing before they come by." Riku said.
He leaned down and kissed your cheek before quickly turning around and calling out to the brothers who were finally on their way out of the park. You felt your face grow hot while he acted like nothing happened. Vanitas and Sora finally caught up and the four of you left the park. You were silent most of the time as you kept glancing at Riku with embarrassment.
Kairi and Namine were right. Riku likes you as well.
You didn't know what to think about that. You just hoped that your little fanboy group never asked you to be their girlfriend, for you just didn't know about dating yet.