Disclaimer: kingdom hearts, and all of it's wonderful characters do not belong to me. if they did, we'd all be screwed,
Memory 2: Fun and Games
Saying he was simply bored was too much of an understatement. No, he was more like super-duper bored…or something of the like. He sighed dramatically and leaned his head onto his palm. Even though it might have been counted as a good thing that he didn't have to do anything at the moment didn't mean he wouldn't want to be doing something. Then again, he was working in a coffee shop…in the middle of the day when it was hottest outside. Who the hell would want to come get a coffee now?! Then again there were the ice coffees that they sold…
The bell tinkled signaling a costumer had come. Finally! A savior from the boredom! He gave another sigh before picking himself up to stand straight and greet the person. Immediately he smiled, this time not the artificial I-have-to-smile-or-I'll-get-fired smile, but a genuine one, as he noticed who stood before him. They each gave him hugs which he didn't mind receiving. Had they been from anyone else, he would've shoved them away. But no, these were some of his closest friends, Sora and Kairi.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you," he said.
"We love you too Riku," Sora said.
"Is it really that boring here?" Kairi asked.
"No. I just love standing here all day with no one to talk to. Of course it's boring," the silverette replied sarcastically. Kairi laughed at that.
"Well then, shall we cure his boredom Kai?" Sora asked.
"Of course," she replied. Riku's eyes widened.
"Ooooh, no you don't," he said quickly. "I don't need to be fired because of you two, even if it is fucking boring here. You'll have to wait until my shift is over."
"Hey Riku!" a voice yelled from the back room.
"Yeah?" the silverette yelled back.
"You can go now if ya want. Not much business comin' through this time 'a day," the voice said.
"Alright. Thanks!" Riku called. He grinned at his friends. "Okay…now you can goof off."
Sora and Kairi grinned. He barely had time to take off his 'uniform' before his hyper friends had dragged him outside.
"Aaah, nice, good, clean fresh air! Better than those coffee shops," Kairi said. Both boys looked at her.
"What? You guys know I'm not a coffee fanatic," she said simply, and skipped off ahead. The boys followed until she stopped suddenly.
"What's wrong?" Riku asked.
"Uhhh," she said, turning around with a sheepish look on her face. "I don't know where we're going…"
Sora laughed at that where as Riku simply rolled his eyes with a smile on his face.
"Well, anyone have any ideas?" Riku asked. Sora raised his hand enthusiastically.
"Oh, oh, oh! I know, I know!" he exclaimed. "Let's go to the arcade." He then turned on the puppy dog pout, knowing the two couldn't resist. Kairi laughed.
"Sounds great," she said. Riku agreed, and they were off. Kairi laughed softly as the boys started bickering once again. It'd been a couple of months now, and she'd gotten used to their competitive natures. No longer shy, she'd always be the one to speak her mind and have a good time. She'd come to learn how to get Riku to join them in the fun when he was being a hard ass. She'd also learned how Sora acted when with Selphie on a sugar high and how to stop him. Then again, she'd join them occasionally just for kicks and to annoy Riku. That's was always fun, as long as they didn't over do it…
Speaking of Selphie, Kairi spotted her with two familiar, blitz ball loving boys.
"Selphie," she shouted, not bothering to tell the others why she was shouting her friend's name. "Wakka, Tidus! Over here!" She waved them over, and they happily obliged.
"Hey guys," Tidus said.
"I thought you were at work Selphie," Kairi said as the brunette girl stopped by her.
"I did, but my shift ended a little while ago," Selphie replied.
"We were going to the arcade now. You guys wanna join us?" Sora asked.
"We'd love to," Selphie answered for the boys before they could decline and go to their beloved blitzball. Tidus and Wakka groaned about their friend answering for them, but smiled anyway, knowing they'd have a good time anyway. And so they headed for the arcade.
"Take that you undead bastard!" Tidus yelled as he pulled the trigger once again, blowing up another zombie in the game.
"Damn it! I died again!" Wakka shouted as his screen turned black and blinked game over. He frowned and put the gun back down in the socket. He decided he had wasted enough quarters on the zombie-killing game. He turned around to see Sora and Selphie trying to pull his new red headed friend onto a blinking platform with arrows, otherwise known as Dance Dance Revolution.
"No, you guys both know how uncoordinated I am!" the red head shouted. Selphie rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on. I'm at least ten times more uncoordinated than you," she said.
"And you willingly admit that?" Riku said.
"Damn proud of it too!" she replied with a grin. Riku rolled his eyes and waited for the red head to join him upon the platform. The two finally got her up there, and Riku started the game.
"Do I really have to?" Kairi asked as the screen loaded.
"Yes," they all said at once. Kairi pouted, but waited patiently as Riku selected the modes and difficulty levels for both of them. He put Kairi on light mode since she was relatively new to the game, while he set his to heavy.
"Don't worry, Riku'll start you out easy," Selphie told her.
"Yup! We'll help you from the sidelines too!" Sora said happily.
"Thanks," Kairi said sarcastically, but smiled just the same. Riku selected a song that went relatively slow and didn't have too many arrows right after another.
"Okay, now find the beat of the song. It almost always helps when you're first starting out," Riku told her. Kairi nodded, and began to nod her head to the beat of the music the machine played.
"Alright, now you're going to hit the arrow on the pad that matches the one coming up the screen when it aligns with that row of arrows at the top," he said.
"Alright…" she said unsurely. But as luck would have it, she hit the first arrow that came at her dead on. She grinned at her triumph and Sora and Selphie both cheered her on. She got ready for the next, and all the ones after that. At the end of the song, she felt she had done rather well for never playing it before. She did miss some arrows and just barely get others, but besides those, she felt she was getting the hang of it. And because of that, she wanted to do it again. She told them and Riku selected another song, still easy, but a bit harder than the other.
Again she did better than she had expected, and it left her wanting to do more, to play harder songs. Riku selected more songs, and he and Sora would switch occasionally. Eventually Selphie hopped in to replace Kairi on the machine. Tidus and Wakka got up there once or twice but neither was very good. They goofed around but managed to stay just above the game over limit. As the blonde and red haired boys jumped off of the machine for the third time, Riku approached Sora.
"Want to do it?" he asked. Sora grinned and answered by hopping onto the dance pad. They selected 'double' this time instead of 'versus', and set the level to standard this time instead of heavy. Kairi looked at Selphie with a questioning glance to which the brunette replied simply, "Just watch."
As the song was selected, a small crowd had gathered, seeming to know what the two boys were about to do. The boys looked at each other with a grin and nodded as the song started. Immediately both began to dance about the pads, each hitting the arrows as they came to each pad. Sometimes they would switch pads, and sometimes one would sit back as they other would dance around, pressing each arrow with practiced grace, and then switch with the other.
The song and spectacle ended, and the crowd cheered for the small routine, wanting more. Riku and Sora consented and played two more songs, once again, both dancing around and switching, and seeming to wait until the last minute to hit an arrow yet still get a 'perfect' on it. Kairi sat by, amazed at the performance while Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka watched on with mild interest, all having seen each routine multiple times while the two were practicing for a competition that had come by the year before.
At last the two boys stepped off the platform, letting some other kids have a go at the game. Kairi approached them with a star-struck gaze still in her eyes that had been left from their performance.
"That was amazing! How did you do that?" she exclaimed. Riku smirked and Sora grinned happily while the others just rolled their eyes.
"There was a convention that came by this place last year, and they had a DDR competition set up," Riku explained.
"Riku and I wanted in, so we made routines and auditioned," Sora added.
"Did you make it in? Did you win?" Kairi asked eagerly.
"They made it in," Selphie started. Tidus cut in to finish, "but they didn't compete because Sora got the flu the week of the competition."
"Oh, well that sucks," Kairi said.
"Yeah. It was all Sora's fault we couldn't compete. It broke my little heart," Riku said, sniffing in a fake manner as though he were about to cry. Sora pouted and punched him in the arm as Riku laughed.
"It is not my fault!" he defended. "Besides, you got to compete in singles. I didn't get to do anything!"
Riku ruffled the brunette boy's hair as he pouted even more.
"Yeah, yeah. But I didn't get that far in it, so don't be such a whiney baby about it," he said teasingly. Sora stuck his tongue out at the silverette who simply rolled his eyes in return with a smile on his face.
"Hey, so where we goin' to dinner, ya?" Wakka asked, cutting in on the small dispute. Sora smiled at this change of subject.
"My mom said we can eat at my house, so you guys don't have to suffer through buying the school's 'food'," he told them.
"All in favor for eating at Sora's house?" Tidus said. Everyone raised their hands.
"Alright, so dinner at Sora's it is!" Tidus exclaimed. With that, they left the arcade. Kairi sighed in relief at not buy school food. She usually went out to buy her breakfast, lunch or dinner, but didn't have enough time that morning. Let's just say her experience with the food wasn't so good…
"What's with the sigh?" Selphie asked as she noticed her friend's relief.
"I don't think the school food likes me much," Kairi replied truthfully.
"What gives you that idea?"
"…"
"Come, it can't be that bad."
"That's what you say because you never buy it."
"Because I never trusted school food after fifth grade. But that's besides the point."
"Then you really shouldn't trust this school's food."
"Why…?"
"…The eggs this morning ate my fork…" (1)
"…"
"Exactly."
It had been about a week since the day at the arcade, and it was once again the weekend. The trio had decided to see a movie. They would have been a quartet had Selphie not needed to go to work at the time. But anyway…
"God, never take me to another scary movie again!"
"Chill, Sora. I thought you'd be able to take a scary movie at least," Riku said.
"Oh, and you weren't freaked out by that girl popping out of no where?" Sora accused. Riku glared at the brunette who returned the gesture while Kairi laughed. She had been the only one not scared during the movie. Sure, the things popping up when you least expected caused her to squeak, but only out of surprise, not fear.
She'd grown up watching scary movies with her foster parents. She'd gotten so used to them that they hardly bothered her now. Apparently they still scared her friends though.
"Oh come on. I thought it was a good movie," she said as she began walking down the sidewalk.
"Well yeah, sure," Sora agreed, more than a little sarcastic, "that is, if you like freakish things like that!"
"I do," she replied easily. Sora and Riku looked at her like she had lobsters crawling out of her ears. "What? I grew up watching mostly scary movies. They don't bother me, and I find them fun to watch."
They still stared at her, not believing that they were more scared than their female friend. Not that they were sexist, they just thought a small, polite girl like her (they couldn't really say quiet since she was around Sora a lot), she would be the one screaming her head off in the theater when the music began to get even the slightest bit mysterious or creepy. Kairi rolled her eyes, and continued walking.
"Hey Kai, what's the time?" Sora asked as he caught up with her.
"Oh yeah. You have work today don't you?" she said. He nodded.
"Yeah. My shift starts at about four," he told her. She looked at her watch.
"Well you better hurry over 'cause you've got ten minutes," she said with a chuckle.
"Shit!" Sora cursed as panic spread over his face. "I gotta go guys. See you tomorrow!"
Kairi and Riku simply looked after their spastic brunette friend with amused faces as he continually yelled, "I'm late! I'm gonna be soooo late! Damn it!" and then laughed some more as an old lady stopped him in his rush to reprimand him on his language, therefore stalling him five more minutes causing him to curse even more. Not a very productive talk, was it?
Kairi laughed even more, and Riku looked at her with a smirk, having an idea why she was acting the way she was.
"You told him the wrong time didn't you," Riku said. Kairi grinned and simply showed him her wristwatch that showed the time was only about 3:15. Riku burst out laughing. Sora was rushing for nothing, although maybe he'd be on time for once. Sora was lucky to have a boss that didn't care if he came in late, as long as it wasn't more than 30 minutes to an hour. Poor Sora...
Their laughing fit died down until they were just smiling at each other.
"Hey, let's go to the beach," Riku said. Kairi nodded happily, and followed her silver haired friend.
Kairi ran happily along the shoreline where the waves came up, her shoes sinking into the sands and getting wet with seawater. She laughed with delight as yet another wave came up. Riku took his time, strolling up to where the auburn haired girl played with a smile on his face. She looked so much like a child to him; it made him wonder how she could ever be serious, though he knew she could be level headed when it came down to it. Still, this part of her he wanted to preserve. He wanted to protect her childish innocence because there was no way he could have saved his own.
Kairi suddenly ran to him and pulled him up to a place where the waves just barely reached, and pulled him down to sit with her.
"Come on, let's build a sand castle!" she cried with a grin.
"I think I'd rather pass," Riku replied. "Isn't building sand castles for little kids, anyway?" Kairi pouted at his blunt refusal.
"Aww, what's the fun in not acting like a kid every once in a while? Technically we still are, even if I'm 16 and you're 17," she said. Riku rolled his eyes.
"Fine, kids littler than us," he said. "Like, 4 or 5, or something like that."
"So? Adults do it all the time too ya know," Kairi argued.
"They only do it because they have kids to entertain," Riku easily returned.
"Oh boo-hoo. You're no fun at all Riku," she said sticking her tongue out at the silverette. She threw a handful of wet sand at the boy, hitting him in the chest. "Come on, live a little!"
Riku looked at the sand on his chest in surprise, which turned into a smirk as he grabbed some wet sand near him. She wanted a sand fight; he'd give her one.
"No fun? I'll show you-" he was cut off as he was hit in the face with more sand. Kairi's laughter could be heard as he frantically spat sand out of his mouth. He glared at her. Oh, it was on now.
"That wasn't fair!" he whined. Kairi only giggled some more.
"So? You were going to hit me, so I just hit you before you could!" she replied. Simple logic, but it fired him up all the same.
Riku frowned and picked up more sand, as he had dropped what he had when she hit him the second time. He threw it after her, but Kairi was already up and running away from him.
The red head was laughing her head off in delight, and soon the laughter became contagious as Riku laughed along with her. Both chased each other around the beach, throwing sand, or dodging what was thrown at them.
Riku knew his inner child had been damaged long ago. He knew that the day he'd met Sora and the others, it had begun to heal. It hadn't been enough to revive it too much though. But ever since this girl came. This girl who was a war child like him, and who knew the pain of losing her family, even if she didn't remember it. This girl who still always laughed and smiled like she had no troubles at all. She was the one who was really healing him. And he wanted her to heal him.
Finally they were out of breath from running around. Vaguely Riku wondered how she had the stamina enough to keep up with him. Sora usually always tired before him, and yet Kairi seemed to be on the same level as him. He shook the thoughts from his head as he noticed they were both covered in sand that stuck to their skin, hair and clothes. Both were still laughing too.
"Hey, I've got an idea," Riku said suddenly. Kairi gave him a curious look, asking him what it could possibly be. He smirked, and picked her up, bridle style, and began walking into the ocean. When they were in deep enough, and Kairi was fairly certain of what he was going to do to her, he dropped her into the cold seawater, cutting her scream off short as her head went under. Riku laughed, but stopped suddenly as he didn't see her come up. He didn't mean to hurt her.
"Kai? Kairi?" he called out worriedly. What if she hit her head on a rock? He looked around, into water for any sign of her. He never heard her come up behind him as he looked around. By the time he did notice her it was too late. Kairi jumped on him, pushing him underwater suddenly, taking him with her. When they came up this time, it was Kairi's turn to laugh.
"Hey! What was that for?!" he exclaimed.
"What do you think? You dropped me in the water, so I decided to push you in," she replied easily. Riku rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he said.
"Well at least we aren't sandy anymore," she told him. She took his hand in hers and pulled him to the shore once again, sitting down. He fought a blush at the simple gesture she had made. "Now come on, you've acted like a kid so far. Let's build a sand castle!"
Riku sighed in defeat, but smiled despite that. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all. He looked at Kairi with soft eyes as she gathered sand, oblivious to him. For the girl who smiled and laughed like there were no troubles in the world. For the girl who was healing him. A strange feeling had entered the pit of his stomach, and it wasn't one he disliked, not one he wanted to go away. He knew what it was, and he was glad that this girl, with her childish innocence, caused it appear in him.
"Riku, aren't you going help? You're not doing anything at all!" Kairi whined, but smiled anyway. Riku chuckled a bit.
"Okay, okay, I'll help," he said. He began gathering sand as she'd been doing earlier.
He glanced at her again, and smiled when her eyes met his. For all the time he'd known her, though it wasn't all that long, he knew what he felt. And he'd never felt it before, until her. Yes, Riku was finally in love, and he was damned proud of it too.
A/N: yesh! Another chapter finished! Sorry this took longer than expected. I'd been hoping to get this up last week, but so many things came up, I never got a chance to sit down long enough to finish typing up the chappie. But it's up now, so be happy. I really wanted to show how the relationship between Riku and Kairi was developing in this chapter. I will not give you any details on whether or not this is a Riku/Kairi story, so if you want to know, you can keep reading. Next chapter will be a lot more eventful than this one, I think. Well, hope you're enjoying the story! Please review and tell me how you like it. Don't care if you flame, because flames will be used to make me hot chocolate...what? I like hot chocolate, even if it's summer...
1) "…The eggs this morning ate my fork…" - This actually happened to my friend. Mind you, it was a plastic fork, but the eggs still ate it! Plus, they were cut into perfect square-ish rectangles, and if you dropped them on the table, they'd bounce…freakish isn't it? And yet, they were still edible. Yikes...
