Welcome! A few points: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. This is my first dip into the KH fandom. There is an OC in this story, but I think it was done well within reason and done well. Please read and review--if people like the character combination, I may write a few more oneshots.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Without a hint of warning the sky opened up, dropping torrents of rain to the sandy ground of the Destiny Islands. The man sighed heavily, now wishing he had thought to bring an umbrella. The walk home would be far from tolerable now. Taking the ferry to the island was always a time to wind down for him. He knew that his closest friends lived just across the way, on the opposite side of the island—but he rarely saw them now. He couldn't bear to, not that little thing with her hair and his eyes. He had to remind himself that he wasn't jealous of them, no—he was happy for them.

It was the sound of sniffling that snapped him back to attention in the pouring rain. No, this wasn't sniffling he realized with a concerned frown; it was sobbing. Grumbling something under his breath, he knew that he couldn't just leave whatever was sobbing alone. He couldn't find it in his heart to leave it alone in torrential rain. It had to be a child; who'd wandered off a little too far and ended up a little too lost.

With that thought in mind, Riku followed the sound of the sobs until he came upon a small opening beneath a canopy of leaves. It looked as though it might make an effective shelter, but he knew from experience that it was hardly effective. Peering into the opening, he was met with a small, redheaded girl, her blue eyes wide and full of tears, clothes plastered to her form from the pounding rain and dash to find shelter.

Groaning, Riku crouched down, crawling a bit closer to the child to grab her attention, frowning at her. Of all the children to be found huddling under leaves on this island, he had to find her.

"Come on," he declared, wrapping one arm protectively around her wrist. "Get up. I can walk you home."

She sniffled, wiping her eyes and nodding, feeling him gently pull her to her feet. Blue eyes were wide and terrified, she didn't seem to like rain one bit. Having found her beneath the leaves reminded him of a time when he was younger; sent out to find those closest friends of his only to find them hiding under a rock. Shivering, cold and wet. Crying and terrified.

With a silent sigh, he realized how much the girl looked like both Kairi and Sora, with her hair and his eyes, and he - oh God, he resented them for it. She looked like a combination of her parents the night of that thunderstorm, sitting soaked under a pathetic canopy of leaves, too scared to go home. He remembered the look of terror on their faces, the tears on her cheeks and the frustration in his eyes.

She was staring at him, and he couldn't tell if the wetness on her faces was the result of tears, or the rain making a mess of her. He started to guide her forwards. The path to that house, he knew by heart; he could walk it with his eyes closed. She inched closer to him, still sniffling, burying her little red head into his arm.

"Y…you're Uncle Riku, right?" her voice was very quiet, wavering. And if she looked at him with his eyes one more time, Riku didn't know what he'd do with himself.

The taller man nodded slowly, "Yeah. And you're…" a pause, oh he knew the child's name, of course he did. But he couldn't help but pause, to try and bite back the frustration - the jealousy in his tone, "Rina."

She nodded. "Yes Sir."

Riku tried to calm down. Tried to ignore her hair and his eyes, which he could never do, not since the day that child was born. Not since the day, almost seven years ago, he stalked out of their door and never once turned back. He couldn't. They tried to call him. He wouldn't call back.

Rina was crying again, stumbling along in the sand, she was a tiny thing, wasn't she? Her feet were sinking into the ground as she tried to walk. All Riku wanted to do was deposit her at her front door and leave. Leave before she had a chance to call her mother and father, say to them, Look! Look who found her—the infamous and ever-absent Uncle Riku

"Don't cry," he said quietly, finding his tone softening. He couldn't stay mad at her. Rina was just a child. She didn't ask her parents to create her, she didn't ask her parents to leave their best friend behind and no he wasn't jealous, he would swear on it. He was happy for them.

"It's dark out," she mumbled, still pressing her little body against him, and still stumbling along in the sand. She wasn't all that coordinated, Riku found himself thinking. That she must've learned from her mother.

"I know its dark out. It gets dark out when it rains," Riku focused green eyes on her, and sighed. They'd never get back to her house at this rate. She looked like she might weigh all of three pounds, with her hair and his eyes, and he couldn't just leave her – leave her to get drenched and soaked. He couldn't no matter how much he wanted to leave. And in the end, he didn't really want to leave her. Not this child. She hadn't done anything. It was her parents.

"I'm going to carry you," he declared then, slipping both hands beneath her arms and scooping her up from the damp sand. She tensed, but then relaxed as he balanced her in his arms.

"I'll get you home."

She sniffled, now resting her head against his shoulder, still trembling, "Thank you."

For a moment, Riku walked through pounding rain in silence, considering how best to approach the inevitable conversation between Sora, Kairi and himself. He would be showing up at their front door, at nine o'clock at night, with their child in his arms; how he could explain that away? If he could explain that away. If they would assume the worst, or the best.

"It's cold," he could feel Rina shivering against his shoulder, and he freed one hand long enough to wrap his coat around her.

"It also gets cold out when it rains," he replied, tucking the coat around her as best he could to warm her.

And then it was there. That house.

That same little, wooden house, adorned with the same windows and doors. It looked exactly the same. Not a thing had changed spare the people inside of it. The lights were on, and the moment he started approaching the door, a figure came outside, leaving the front door wide open, and came sprinting into the rain.

"Rina!"

It was her. Riku recognized the voice immediately. He felt himself stiffen at the sound of her voice. And then, Kairi paused, "Riku? Oh…thank God. Where did you find her?"

And, as was expected, he was all of a foot and a half behind; and for a moment, Riku would've sworn he saw anger. But the anger vanished the moment he saw Rina, who was now trying to get to the ground, and relief flooded his features.

"Rina! I looked everywhere for you!" He sounded furious, but his eyes betrayed his anger—the man was far more relieved than angry.

"I just went to go for a walk—and then—and then it started raining and it was dark and I was too—and I didn't know how to get back and—and—" Rina was stammering and Riku wanted her to stop. She sounded scared, but her voice was tinged with an almost bitter curiosity, "And Uncle Riku found me and he said he'd bring me home and he did! See!" Bitter curiosity, from a seven-year-old. How ironic.

Sora crouched down to Rina's level, pulling her close to him in a tight embrace. He was the paranoid type of father, wasn't he? He was, Riku decided. He was holding that child far too tight, with far too much fear of losing her in his eyes.

"I do see. Riku brought you home. That was nice of him, wasn't it, Rina?"

The girl nodded, pulling away from her father enough to look at her parents as a whole, her face one stupid grin, as she tilted her head. "Mommy, Daddy?" Rina asked, with the expert puppy-dog tone only a seven-year-old could master, "since…since Uncle Riku brought me home…could he come inside? He got all wet and it's cold and maybe we could make him some tea and have dinner with him too?"

And the moment the words came toppling from her mouth, Rina could sense the tension. Riku felt it as well and God it was almost palpable, wasn't it? He wasn't sure who was angrier. Green eyes focused on Sora and Kairi, with a hint of malice; of dare in his eyes.

"I think that's a very nice idea, Rina. Why don't you come inside? We can get you dried off and find you something to wear. If the rain doesn't clear up…" and Sora paused, as if he was almost making that declaration to the sky, though Riku wasn't sure if he wanted the rain to stop or not, "… you can spend the night. Is that all right with you, Riku?"

It was hard to tell with the rain obscuring his vision, but he would've sworn that both Sora and Kairi were looking directly at him, almost pleadingly. Did they want him to come in? To stay? To reconcile a friendship that had been destroyed so long ago? Or was it simply for the sake of their child?

Riku felt a grin cross his features, though how genuine it was he couldn't be certain. "How could I say no to a face like that?"