A/N:For Fizzy, whose Riku made my Nami-chan blush all that time ago in Poly. Yay for Riku/Naminé! It needs more love. Con crit rocks!
escape
It's not home, this much he knows; he may be free from the darkness, but it's just another prison.
He hasn't been free for a long time, not since he sold his heart away.
It's hard to run away from things like that, hard to run away from poison that seeps through your veins, hot and addictive and never leaving you, not really. It's a nightmare you don't ever wake up from.
That's why he spends most of his nights out here. The clouds outside Castle Oblivion are not warm with rain but cold with ice, and he can see frost forming on the curvy castle roofs most nights.
He pretends not to mind.
"Riku?"
A small voice breaks him from his thoughts. He turns to see her, Naminé, nothing stronger than a whisper on a wind, dressed like a bride, small and sad.
"Riku, it's cold out here. Maybe you should come back inside."
He does not respond. She bites her lip and grasps her skirt; he looks up and away into the coming storms.
"Then take this?" she asks, her voice feather-soft. Her fingers brush his, and weight settles in his hands.
It's a cup of tea, no sugar or milk or lemon or frills or fancy trim on the china. It's just warm and dark, simple, like shadows.
"I made it for you," she supplies, similarly, without frills. "I hope you like it."
She does not quite know what to hope for, but he just smiles, smiles quietly in spite of everything and says, "Thank you."
In such a way that makes her smile, too.
Maybe, she thinks. Maybe he's starting already.
Maybe he's starting to forgive himself.
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