Riku/Namine this time, because they're so tragic and I like tragic love the best. This one's a little suggestive, with mentions of alcohol and, uh, prior bad acts. Remember kids—sober and celibate is the way to go! Also, if you want to know what inspired this piece 100%, go listen to Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event. Its one of those songs that I put on repeat and listen to all night. It will make you think Riku/Namine, I promise. Also, I may or may not have borrowed a line or two, but the only one that was intentional was the last one and the summary.
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The clock above the bar struck midnight, and that's when he saw her. She just stepped out of Kairi like stepping through a threshold, and the latter didn't even seem to notice—she continued her conversation with Sora, sipping at her drink like it was a lifeline. They'd both had far too many, but Riku'd had twice as much, and, besides, they were owed this night, at least. They'd done too much to not be allowed one night of fun.
Surprisingly, when he saw her, his first thought wasn't that he was imagining things. It was that it'd been so long since he'd seen her last that the profile of her face wasn't as famillar as once before. But he remembered that it should be, and so he put down his drink and headed her way.
She met him in the middle. Somehow, seeing her in this nightclub, the lively lights casting patterns on her simple white gown, was almost obscene. She did not belong here (none of them did, not when there were worlds to be saved and darkness to vanquish and it was all they could do to hold up the thin illusion that they were normal for once), where it was loud and grimy, and she was quiet to the point of (almost) nonexistence, and always so white.
He'd kissed her from the collarbone to the crest of her hip, once, and her skin was so milky that he thought it'd melt under his lips like white chocolate.
Riku doesn't dare call out her name—she is real (but not really), she has to be, but silence was always sort of a spell between them that he doesn't want to break, just in case the flutter of his breath is enough to send her back. Their eyes are locked, at any rate, and there is no need for words, there never has been between them.
They'd never talked about her fading away, because they weren't those people, the ones that fooled each other into believing that everything would be okay. Nothingness wouldn't be so different than what she was already, and if she closed her eyes you'd almost think her a part of the marble walls, so, maybe, fading away would be the same as sleeping.
"Riku…" she says, simply, with no emotion coloring her tone. (Maybe that'd been the problem all along).
He can smell her, vanilla and pencil shavings, and he knows that if he kisses her she'll taste like a rainbow, but if he opens his eyes and pulls away she'll be nothing again. He reaches out to take her hand, but instead of letting him wrap his fingers around her knuckles, she presses her palm against his, which reminds Riku that she's so small. They stay there, palms together, for a moment, until she puts her arm down and stares up at him. It'd been a long time since they could look at each other this way, with no blindfold or Other impeding their vision. She steps closer to him, tantalizingly close, and he swears that the room spins in that moment, partly because of the rush of nostalgia that hit him the same time that her presence did, and partly because of the last shot of liquid fire that he poured down his throat.
"Why are you here?" he asks her, because it's almost not fair that she'd torment him like this, when he's half (plus another half) drunk and lonely and had watched Sora and Kairi kiss all night and then stared into the strobe light until he couldn't see straight. Not that he isn't glad to see her, but he's still afraid that she'll curl away from him like smoke the moment that he exhales.
She doesn't answer him; instead, she takes another step closer, but rather than walking into his embrace she pushes past him, and ambles over to where he set his drink. She raises the glass to her lips—her eyes peeking over the rim to keep in touch with his own—and tries to get lost in the crowd.
But he won't let her lose herself for long, and so his gaze follows her through the throng of people as she listens and dances, looking like a sliver of moonlight every time that she turns, and is only half there. No one seems to notice her for more than a few seconds, and by the time that she's laughed at their joke or caught their eye she's gone, and they think they'd just had a few too many.
Riku knows that he has, but it has nothing to do with her appearance, and everything to do with the indecision that has him rooted to the floor. He thinks that he ought to call out her name a few times, but every time he plucks up the courage to do so, his head starts to spin.
He takes his eyes off of her only once, and that's to glance back at Sora and Kairi, who are still off in their own little world, cheeks flushed and laughing a little too loud, and when he scans the room for her again she's standing right in front of him.
"Riku…" she says again, and this time he jerks his hand out to capture hers, but she pulls back just in time, like a mote of dust that you lunge for but never get, and begins to walk backwards to the door, one step at a time. She runs into no one, just takes one slow step at a time, and he follows just as carefully, until she comes within a hair's breadth of the door and stops. She holds out her palm to him again, but this time when the two meet, she gently closes her fingers over the back of his hand. She steps forward and past him again, but their fingers are still interlocked, and with her eyes on his own, she steps back…back…back…
Until she's there no longer.
Sora and Kairi are standing where Namine should be, looking a little concerned for their friend, who's looking pale and bewildered, and standing alone with his back to the door.
"Riku, what is it? You look like you've seen a ghost."
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I couldn't resist that last line. It's my favorite part of the song, and oh so fitting. And, gah, I hate the title please give me some better suggestions, please!