Riku stood on the rooftop, rain pelting against his head and flattening silver hair against his scalp, sticking it to his cheeks. He ignored this, and the biting cold, in favour of staring down at the street, twenty-four storeys below. Something inside him, that little tug around his navel that indicated the presence of a keyblade, had pulled him here, and he was determined not to miss his chance. Sora had to be here. If the keyblade was here, then so was Sora. After all, the only person apart from the brunet who could wield the weapon was Riku himself.

Movement. A shifting of the darkness in the street so far below, and Riku was instantly on the alert. No sign of life, not human at least, but suddenly the shadows had taken form, and looked around them with phosphorous yellow eyes that lacked any real intelligence. They could sense it too. He tensed in anticipation. Soon. Very soon, if even the lowest form of Heartless had felt that little stirring. Suddenly, a different type of movement became apparent. Instead of shifting aimlessly, the Shadows seemed to be converging on a central point, towards the street that led into the square. The knot of bodies that formed seemed to undulate, little puffs of smoke indicating another heartless being cut down. The pull was stronger than ever now, and Riku knew, even before the moonlight caught the blade, what weapon was causing the damage. A keyblade. A burst of movement distracted him, as the figure launched himself skywards. Defying all laws of gravity, he took off at a dead run up the side of the building. The Heartless followed him, and Riku was shot through with a sliver of panic as he realised that something about them was slightly off. Their bodies were leaner than normal, their antennae-ears longer.
Shit, he thought, Neoshadows.

Sora ran on, dispatching the enemies with unnatural ease, twin keyblades catching the moonlight, raindrops refracting and multiplying the silver light.

Two keyblades? Since when? And why is Sora all dressed in black? Something's wrong.

He dismissed it as unimportant. Even as swiftly as he killed the Heartless, more appeared. As if sensing the futility of fighting alone, his hooded face turned skywards, towards where Riku stood, as if he had known he was there all along. His arm reared back, launched one of the keyblades up, and on instinct, Riku leapt out to catch it. Plummeting, he turned his blindfolded eyes to see the boy as he ran past. Blonde hair, not brown. A bitter disappointment welled up inside of him as DiZ's words came back to him.

Nobody...

He couldn't be sure he hadn't hissed the word.

He barely caught himself in time to land on his feet, a broad swing of his keyblade sending the nearest Heartless disintegrating into little smoke-clouds. The boy, the Nobody who dared to be the missing part of Sora, landed behind him, and they moved fluidly to fight back-to-back. The heartless practically threw themselves onto their blades, trusting dumbly in their sheer numbers to overwhelm the two boys. Within seconds, the last few were smoke on the wind.

The battle over, Riku turned on the boy, his keyblade up and ready to strike. To his surprise, it was met and repelled easily. This boy was good, and quicker to retaliate than Sora was. Overbalanced, he stumbled and fell back.

"Why do you have the Keyblade?!" He yelled bitterly, his thoughts adding Why are you not him?!

"Shut up!" The boy responded. He reached up and threw back his hood, and Riku stifled a cry. He had the same damned eyes. Those surreal, impossibly blue eyes that had so often met his, shining with laughter or narrowed in mock anger, now regarded him with confusion. He felt the shifting against the bridge of his nose, and the knot holding the thin black fabric across his eyes unfastened, the blindfold fluttering free. The boy took a step forwards, confusion intensifying, a frown creasing at his brows.

"Riku?" He clapped a hand over his mouth, as if startled. Not nearly as startled as Riku himself was.

"You know me?" His words were little more than breath, but clearly audible. The blonde Nobody fell to his knees, trembling fingertips reaching out to touch the curve of Riku's cheek. His breath hitched. The silver-haired boy had stopped breathing altogether, the closeness of those eyes tying his insides up in knots.

It's him...

It's not him...
His thoughts whirled, following the same two conclusions around and around until they blurred together and he felt so dizzy that he almost didn't notice the pressure of lips against his. Shocked, he froze. The mouth trembled, withdrew, then sought his again. Riku's lips moved, maybe to make a protest, even he was unsure, but somehow he found himself responding. A noise broke free of the blonde's throat and he pressed forwards, pushing Riku down until his back was against the cold pavement. He gasped softly, the sound muffled in the meeting of lips. They were so soft, coaxing and caressing, gentle but insistent. He wondered if Sora's mouth would feel this good against his, taste so sweet. Eyes drifting open, now when had they closed? his mind replaced blonde hair with brown, softened the curve of a jawline, darkened skin to a sunkissed glow. It was then that he caught the gleam of moonlight on wetness, a trail of tears down the blonde's cheek. That, more than anything, made him pull back. Gently, he put a hand against the Nobody's chest, pushing him up.

"Stop."

The boy's eyes were bewildered, a shaking hand reaching up to wipe away tears that he apparently had no idea he had shed. Without a word, he rose to his feet, still looking lost and a little scared. Before Riku could stop him, the hood was back over his head, concealing his expression from view, and he was disappearing into the night, leaving the silver-haired boy sitting in the rain, drawing his knees up to his chest.