"Augh! You got soap in my eyes on purpose!"
"I did not! Stop thrashing around, its just a bath!"
Riku extended his five-year-old hands out blindly, groping for a towel whimpering pathetically. His mother pulled one off the rack and placed it in his hands. He buried his face in the corner extended to him, letting the rest fall into the tub.
"Ow! It hurts! My eyes are going to shrivel up!" He moaned trying to rid his aqua eyes of the offending bubbles.
"Oh you're fine!" His mother said re-lacing her palm with shampoo, to scrub her son's silver hair.
"I'll bet Sora doesn't have to put up with this torture." He grumbled into the towel.
"It's just a bath, Riku. Calm down."
"I'll bet his mom doesn't get soap in his eyes." He said wiping the rest of the sting away.
"No she doesn't. Do you know why? Because he doesn't throw a fit whenever he see's even a hint of bathwater, he doesn't bite his mother when ever she wants the three inch layer of dirt off him!" His mother said scrubbing his scalp.
"Ow! You scratched me!" Riku said throwing his hands to his head. "I'm going to report you to child services."
"Oh no! A mother has tried to give her son a bath! Sound the alarms!" His mother said laughing.
"They have alarms for that kind of stuff? Cool!" Riku said as his mother poured water over his head washing the tower off suds off his silver hair. His mother laughed and squirted conditioner into her hand and began to move her fingers through her son's hair. She poured more water over his head washing it away and dried her hands off.
"Ok, you're done!"
Riku shot up splashing water every where. "YES!" He scurried to climb over the edge of the tub, but the ceramic was slippery and he went under. "Oh my gosh! Riku!" His mother pulled him back up. "Are you ok?"
Riku coughed and nodded. His mother hoisted him out of the tub and wrapped a dry towel around him.
"Can I go back outside now?"
"No, its 9:00!" He mother said taking yet another towel and rubbing his hair with it.
"But its barely even dark out!"
"Fine, you can go out side."
"YAY!"
"If you want to take another bath afterwards."
Riku frowned at his mother. "I knew there was a catch."
Riku's mom laughed and hoisted her son onto her hip and carried him out the doorway without another word. After dressing him, which he insisted he could do by him self, she lay him in bed.
"I'm not a little kid any more! I can do this sort of stuff by myself." He said to her pulling the blankets around his chin.
"Last time you dressed your self you tried to shove your head through the sleeves, we had to cut it."
Riku scowled. "That happened one time!"
Riku's mother smiled at her persistent son and leaned forward to kiss him on the nose. He stuck his tongue out and wiped it off. "I don't want you to grow up, I want you to stay my little boy forever." She giggled.
Riku looked up at her strangely. "I'm gonna have to grow up sometime. Every body will laugh at me when I'm old and you're still trying to brush my teeth for me."
His mother laughed. "Well then I'll just have to enjoy having you at this age for as long as I can, now wont I?" She asked him. Riku glowered at her.
"You're not going to sing to me again… are you?" He asked.
"Well I wasn't going to, but now that you mention it…"
Riku groaned and pulled the covers over his head. "No! No more!" His mother smiled at him and looked down on him happily.
"Ok… I won't sing to you. Good night."
Riku pulled the covers off his head to look at her. "Well, maybe I wouldn't mind… if you sang… a little bit." He said sitting up.
She pushed him back down and smiled at her son. "Ok, just a little bit though."
Riku's mother began to sing a lullaby that Riku remembered her singing since he could last remember. His eyes were feeling heavy before the second verse even started, and by the third he was out like a light.
"Good night Riku." His mother said kissing the top of his head.
--------------
"Huh?" Riku sat up. He looked around vaguely aware of his surroundings. "When did I fall asleep?" He pulled himself off the ground and looked through the white hallway.
"I need to be more careful." He muttered to himself. "But its strange… why did I… think of that memory? At a time like this too." He scolded himself. He walked down the hall, unaware that he was humming his mother's lullaby.
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"Riku! Time to come in!"
Riku turned around from the ball game he, Sora and Kairi were currently playing. "Aww, Mom! Can't I stay out a little longer?" He called back to her. "It's not dark out, its not a school night, and Sora and Kairi don't have to go in yet!" He continued to yell.
"Riku, I said now!"
"No you didn't! You never said 'now'!" Riku informed her. Sora gave him a high five and Kairi giggled.
"Well I said it just now. Come in NOW!"
"I gotta go, guys. That's her 'I'm not kidding' voice. I'll see ya later!" He said waving. He ran inside to where his mother was tapping her foot with a stern look on her face.
"Uh… hi?"
His mother raised her eye brows and continued to give him a stern look. Finally she broke into a smile and swooped him up in her arms. "I just can't stay mad at you." She said tickling her son..
"Lucky me!" Riku laughed.
"Ok now you go upstairs and give your self a bath. Ok? I'll be up in a minute to tuck you in."
"Kay!"
--
Riku sat in the tub pushing the wooden boat his dad had made, around the water. It was a childish thing to do and he denied it every time some one asked, but it was the only thing that made baths bearable. He smiled to himself as he created a wave that capsized the boat and pulled the plug to make a whirlpool to further its destruction. After he climbed out of the tub he had honorable burials in the toothpaste for the crew.
Once his mother had come in and stopped his demolition of the bathroom he was put in bed.
"Hey mom?" He asked as his mother blew out the candle next to his bed.
"Yes sweetie?"
"What do you think happens when we die?"
His mother smiled down at him. "Well I'm sure we won't get buried in toothpaste." She said.
"No I mean after that. What happens after the bugs sneak into our coffin and eat us? What happens then?"
His mother chuckled at hearing this. "We'll go to heaven, if we've been good people."
"And what's that like?" Riku asked playing with the covers.
"I don't know, when I get there I'll come down and tell you." She said leaning down and kissing his forehead.
"Ok, as long as you don't go anytime soon."
"Ok, it's a deal." She said smiling again. Riku reached up and hugged his mother.
"Love you mom."
"Love you too."
"Yeah? Well I love you more!"
"Now don't start that again." His mother scolded before leaving the room. "Good night, Riku."
"Good night mom."
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Riku's eyes snapped open. His arms were crossed over his chest in a defensive position and his sword was being held tightly in his right hand. He stood up groggily looking around blankly.
"I really need to stay awake." He muttered to him self. "What am I gonna do when heartless appear? Pull it together." He scolded again pinching himself on the arm. He sulked down the hallway in an unpleasant silence. And all of the sudden, more than anything, he wanted a bath.
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"Mom? Mom!"
"What? What is it? Are you hurt?" Suddenly the tension in the air disappeared as his mother began to laugh.
"Why are you laughing? It's eating me!" Riku yelled pulling frantically at his arm.
"Didn't I tell you to leave that alone?" She asked placing her arms on her waist.
"Mommmmmm… it hurts! Scold me later! Later!" Riku yelled pulling at his arm.
"Ok, ok." His mother reached down and attempted to pull the boy's arm out of the washing machine. "Why'd you stick it in there in the first place?"
"I lost a quarter." He moaned.
"Well did you get it?"
"MOM!"
"Just asking." His mother finally pulled the boy's arm out of the cannibalistic washing machine. It was soapy, scraped and swollen. But other than that it was in pretty good shape. Riku held out his beaten arm proudly and opened his palm to reveal a round shiny object.
"Hey look! I got the quarter!"
His mother smiled and picked him up. "Lets get you fixed up, ok? You can tell every one at school that a washing machine ate your arm." She laughed.
"Cool!"
--
"How'd that happen to your arm, Riku?" Kairi asked speeding up and walking beside him.
"The washer ate it." He said poking it. Sora laughed.
"The washer ate it? How can a washer eat anything?" He asked reaching over to help with the activity of poking Riku's arm.
"It was cool! It came after me and clamped onto my arm! And then I picked up a stick and began to beat the heck out of it! Then my mom came and started screaming cause there was so much blood! Then she fainted and the washer let go of my arm and dove for her! So I stabbed it with my sword and it died in soapy violent death!"
Sora frowned. "Nah uh." He said poking Riku's arm harder than he meant to.
"Yeah huh! That's what happened." Riku said pulling his arm away before Sora mangled it. "You can ask my mom!" That sealed to deal. When some one says you can ask their mother, they aren't joking. Riku knew this and took advantage of it on more than one occasion. He knew Sora wouldn't ask his mother, for fear of looking like an idiot.
When Riku arrived at his home his mother was rocking back and forth in her chair. He waved to his friends to show he was going home and they waved back. He ran up the stairs to where his mother was.
"Hi mom!" He said. His mother opened her eyes to look at him. She smiled and reached down to pull him onto her lap.
"Hi sweetie." She whispered into his ear. He looked up at her. "What's wrong?" He asked. She hugged him tightly and buried her face into his hair.
"Nothing, I'm just enjoying being here."
"With me?" Riku asked wrapping his arms around hers, he heard her match her breath to his and felt her eyelashes bat against his forehead.
"Of course with you." She said. Riku closed his eyes and leaned against her shoulder.
"Love you mom."
"I love you too."
-----------
When Riku woke up next he noticed something strange. He reached up to his face and rubbed his cheek. He pulled his hand back and notice it was wet.
"I'm… crying…?" He said numbly. He wiped the tears away from his cheeks and stood up. He tried to stop the flow of tears from falling down his face but he wasn't able to. "Come one… crying never helped any one…" He whispered. His breaths started to come in short gasps and Riku was weeping.
"Stop it…" He muttered. He wiped and wiped but the tears would not stop. A small voice tugged at the back of his mind.
'Just admit it, you'll feel better.'
"Admit what…?" he asked continuing to wipe the tears away.
'You miss your mother, you want your mother.'
"What?" Riku was arguing with him self. This was not a good sign.
'Just admit it."
"Ok fine, I miss my mom."
'Well, you have to MEAN it.'
"I do mean it!" Riku snapped at the mental voice in his head. "Aw, jeeze, now I'm going insane."
'Just say it, and I'll go away.'
"I did say it!"
'Mean it.'
"I did mean it!" Riku was becoming frustrated. "You know what? Fine, I miss my mom! I want my mom! There? Happy?"
'Are you?'
"I'm a tad frustrated because I'm arguing with a voice in my head and I look like I'm insane!"
The voice was silent. Riku scowled and wiped his tears, he proceeded to walk down the hallway quietly singing his mothers lullaby to himself and wishing for a bath.
Ummm kay. So I got bored and wrote this. I thought it was cute and funny and I thought Riku needed a break from all the torture I've submitted him to in the past. Although this probably isn't considered a break seeing as I made him cry… Oh well, he's a strong boy, he can deal with it. I will be continuing my reflections story. Just incase some of you were worried. This is just a break from that.