Title: nobody nothing
Author: Digimon Empress Yaten (de yaten)
Notes: Written for kh_request. Dark. Violence.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or its characters. I don't claim to own them.
Riku doesn't know when he stopped seeing the city (that never was, never will be) as a city and began seeing it, calling it, feeling it around him only as an empty wasteland full of... full of... well, he doesn't know. No, he does. He does but doesn't want to think it, say it. Nothing. It's full of absolutely nothing. The buildings are only empty mocking shells of city life. The rain is useless, supporting no life and flooding black backstreets. The store windows are dirty, unmanned, and the only puppy in the window had his heart ripped out long ago. Nothing there, no one there, but Riku - Riku and... Roxas. But Roxas, Riku thinks (when he can spare a thought in between slicing and dicing) is nothing, is nobody. Roxas doesn't - shouldn't - exist and Riku needs to destroy him. Not kill, never kill - you can only kill somethings. Killing was bad. Destroying was necessary. He needs to take Roxas away, away to DiZ and his black cherry bandages, smash his brain into a million little pieces and wait for the little witch to finish her job with Sora. Then - only then, maybe then - everything will be okay.
But then seems so far away, a dot on the horizon, a dull star in the sky that is only seen through squinted eyes. Riku can't beat Roxas, can't overpower him, throw him to the ground and toss him back into Sora's heart where he belongs - Roxas is strong. Strong like Riku. Strong like Sora. Strong like (Riku thinks, but denies he does) his own sort of person that was (maybe) something more than a shell. And, shell or not, Roxas was... Sora. A part of Sora, however small. A sliver of Sora that only the most unfortunate saw - blind to slaughter and ignoring mercy with a thin-lipped apathetic look towards the Heartless/Nobodies/evil evil evil person that got in his way. A good fighter, to be sure, and just as good as Sora (but more bloody, more bruising, more maybe-I-will-die) at pinning Riku on his stomach and yanking back silver-hanging hair until even Roxas could hear Riku's teeth grinding.
"What's the matter, Riku," he says, his voice light and as un-Sora as the blood on Riku's cheek, "ready to give in yet?"
"No way, Sora!"
And maybe if they were somewhere else, like a World that actually existed, Riku's smile and easy toss-toss of his head, light and easy, would not agitate the Nothing so. If they were somewhere else, the taunt - innocent back in a World that had a sea-salt heartbeat - would not bring about more blood, more pain, a smack to the head and painful grinding-down on concrete.
But they were nowhere, and not-Sora hates Sora (even though he has no clue who 'Sora' is) and wants Riku to say his name for once. Just once. "Say my name," he says, trying not to sound like the cheap porno he (accidentally, of course) caught Axel watching the night before. "Say my name one time and I'll get off you. I'll let you go, even. This time."
He waits. Roxas doesn't have the patience of a child-saint, but he knows (through trial and error) that patience always pays off in the end. They give you their money, they take you to the toy store, they give you a hot-fudge sundae before dessert because, damn it, you've stamped your feet and held your ground.
So he waits.
And waits.
And waits and waits and waits andwaitsandwaitsandwaitsandwaits and waits no more--
Until it's too late, and Riku only has yellow eyes for Sora.