Author's Note: One for my Final Fantasy character post at KH Request (on LJ), for midnight-birth with the prompt: the days fly by but the nights last forever. Also: mention of a watermelon. Thanks to her for calling the pairing's attention to me. I quite like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.
Who We Are
Hollow Bastion's not such a bad place. Every now and then, Riku goes there to think, just sits on a jut of rock overlooking an empty canyon and wonders what it looked like as Radiant Garden. Looks through eyes that aren't his, but at least he can see.
It reminds him a bit of himself, the way he was then and the way he is now. Did Radiant Garden always have a bit of Hollow Bastion in it, or is it the other way around? Regardless, it's a place for transition and quiet thought. It won't stay Hollow Bastion forever. Maybe he won't stay stuck in a body that doesn't match his heart.
Sometimes, she sits beside him. Aerith may just lean back and look, or talk about how Cid won't let her put up planters yet, or bring with her a tray of fruit. He never has any, but listens silently as she tells him the watermelons aren't ripe yet. Perhaps there's a bit of symbolism in that. He's not sure.
Doesn't matter, really.
They both stare into the canyon, looking for something that isn't there. Riku, for a reflection that doesn't make him sick, and Aerith for the shadow of a man who left without a proper goodbye. The conversation wears off, but they sit, and sit, and sit, until daylight draws the curtain of night back, and he has to leave with the darkness.
It's just like every other time, and every other time before that, when he's watching moonlight slide down the rocky walls and she alights softly beside him.
"I decided I had enough," she begins without a hello, which makes it easier to accept that this, too, is only temporary. "So I put up some planters by the weapon shop and the accessory shop, and even some potted plants on peoples' windowsills." She laughs, silvery, politely behind her hand. "Cid had such a fit, but everyone was smiling, so there wasn't much he could do."
Good for you. Maybe that's the right thing to say at a time like this. Either way, he doesn't want to hear himself speak with someone else's tongue. The words always come out wrong.
"Sometimes, the petals catch the sunlight just right, and everything gets a little brighter." Her voice dips very subtly, a small sigh escaping. "But at night, they close up and are just as dark as everything else."
They wait a while, and nothing comes. No shock of silver or blond hair splits the shadows of the ravine. Tonight feels heavier than usual, somewhat darker. Riku leans back and closes his eyes. Sunrise will come, but the darkness never wanes.
He's surprised when he feels warmth through the leather of his glove: her hand, so small and pale, resting lightly over his. For perhaps the first time, he looks at her. Though she can't see through the veil of his hood, her eyes look into his – his, past the unnatural orange irises of an evil man, and into sky blue ones he'd almost forgotten. She smiles, sadly but with hope.
Temporary. Maybe it is, but for him, temporary always seems to last a very long time.
He clears his throat and can almost hear the voice of a boy he used to know, who opened a door and only expected light on the other side. "I'm Riku."