"I never really thanked you."
Riku nearly laughs; the careful, measured balance of the air between the two of them in a too-large, too-enclosing room keeps the outburst trapped in his throat, but the force of restraining it makes him flinch back in surprise all the same. "For what?"
Across from him, though, Xion does laugh—a strangled sob of a chuckle, yet her grin breaks through all the same. Riku lets himself half-smile when he sees it, sees one of her thin hands clenching and releasing the sheets in her silent revelation at the sensation of touch, the shallow rise and fall of her chest matching his and proving that this is real, she's alive and real...
When he finally sees the way her sapphire eyes glitter from two beds away through the drowsy haze that always follows a Dive, his heart skips a beat.
"For telling me the truth." He can feel her hands shake, and if it weren't for the way her words gain speed as she goes on, he'd at least try to convince himself to reach out for them. "For giving me a chance to choose. For letting me be my own person. For—for saving my life, just now." Xion shakes her head suddenly, pressing her free hand to her mouth for a moment even as she smiles, and for the first time that she's ever let him see, one shining tear slips over her cheek. "Thank you for everything, Riku."
That's all it takes for her to pull it out of him—what only his friends had ever seen, something too honest and raw for daylight—and all its energy and passion rush over him like the tide rolling in until he's swallowing against the needle of dull pain in his chest and pushing himself out of the bed he'd found himself in. The delicate stillness of the air between them is forgotten—destroyed—as he sweeps through it, crossing the room to kneel at her bedside, resting one hand on hers and slipping his fingers between the sheet and her own.
"No. Thank you, Xion. For everything."
And Xion twists her hand around to wrap it around his, another tear falling to meet her smile.
Yeah, yeah, you can go pick on me about being a bigger sap than all the KH characters combined and rag on my for how OOC this all is. It's still cute and you know it. XD
Happy Rion Day, everybody! Let's all be proud of 'Matus; she took time out of her Calculus homework (not that it was all that hard to get her to, LOL) to contribute for the first time in recorded history. On time. And something longer than a drabble. It's like Christmas came back again...
Set after KH3D and during KHIII sometime, in that hypothetical situation where everyone finally wakes up. It's my theory that, given Riku has no connection with Roxas or Ventus but all the connection in the world with Naminé and Xion, it will fall to Riku to awaken the girls while Sora tackles Roxas and drags him back kicking and screaming. ;) Not to mention Riku and Xion had the worst goodbye of any fairly good friends/allies I've ever seen, and Xion never officially thanks him for anything except the vague directions to find Naminé. -_- Ergo, I remedy it through fanfiction and hope that you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it. ^_^