Chapter 4
Nothing on Destiny Islands was quite so beautiful as the way the sun shone brightly off the ocean, regardless of what time of day it was. In tentative pre dawn light it brushed against the shoreline like a whisper to wake up the world, and everything was soft and pink. At midday it sparkled like a million diamonds and sounded more like laughter, bright and blinding and real. Sitting on the bent paopu tree at twilight, everything seemed to burst into flames and the reflection of the sun stretched across the waves like a bridge to the end of the world. She wished it could be that easy, but the path of sunlight never held her weight and instead just sat there as a taunting reminder that she and her friends were trapped.
Riku sat with an arm propped up on his knee and his other leg hanging over the edge of the dock while Natsumi scoured the surrounding area for Thalassa shells, waiting for Sora and Kairi to join them. Occasional comments were shared back and forth, but for the most part they waited in silence. Natsumi kept glancing up at Riku from underneath her eyelashes, mulling over in her mind her desire to get off of the islands and the idea Riku had yet to tell her about.
She knew from the look on his face that he was thinking about the same thing. Though she knew that Riku wanted to leave the islands just as badly as she did, she still wasn't sure why. The two of them had never really talked about it that in depth, just that they both wanted desperately to leave. She didn't know if it was because he was bored, curious, a combination of both, or something else altogether. She didn't know if he felt the same indescribable pull she felt every day of her life.
Natsumi wanted to ask him about it, wanted to finally talk about the thing they'd never needed to put into words before, but the words still wouldn't come. It wasn't that she was scared to talk to him about it, more like there was no urgency to the thought. She didn't have to ask him right that second because they had all the time in the world. Right now it was enough to share fleeting glances, playful little smiles, and meaningless conversation. It was enough to simply be.
After a long while of fruitlessly searching for any Thalassa shells, Natsumi abandoned the task and stepped back onto the dock. Riku looked over his shoulder at hearing her footsteps approaching before turning back to looking at the ocean. From the dock they could see the play island, and the bent paopu tree where they spent their evenings watching the sun set.
"What's taking those two so long?" Natsumi whined as she sat next to him and let her head rest heavily on his shoulder.
"It's Sora and Kairi. What do you expect?"
He chuckled a bit, and Natsumi gave a disgruntled groan. Natsumi let her eyes slip shut against the sun that stretched blindingly across the ocean, still high in the sky. They had hours yet before the sun would set and they would have to be home, and Natsumi always enjoyed spending time with Riku, so Sora and Kairi's tardiness really shouldn't have mattered, except…
The blonde frowned.
She really wanted Riku to just tell her what his idea was already.
"Hey, Ri—"
"Nope."
Her eyes immediately shot open and she sat up straight, hands reflexively gripping the edge of the dock.
"Aw, c'mon! Why not?"
Riku looked down at her with a smirk, amusement in his aqua eyes.
"I already told you, Natsu."
He reached up and lightly tugged her ponytail.
"Hey!"
Natsumi went to swat at his hand, but he snatched it away before she could make contact.
"You gotta wait until Sora and Kairi get here."
She glared at him, but there was no malice behind the expression and it quickly turned into another pout.
"But they're taking forever. Come on, Riku, just tell me, please?"
They held eye contact for a few moments before Riku broke it, looking away and reaching up with his gloved hand to push her face away.
"Ack, Riku, wha—?"
"Don't look at me with those puppy dog eyes."
"Puppy dog eyes? I just want you to tell me what your idea is."
"Yeah, well, patience is a virtue."
The blonde looked back up at that, about to come back with a sassy remark before stopping. Riku was still looking out at the ocean, and when a light breeze came off the water and pushed his hair away from his face she could see that his cheeks were tinged red. She leaned forward, thinking it was just a trick of the light, but the flush remained.
"Riku? Are you okay? Your face is all red."
"Fine," he said, but he still wasn't looking at her.
Natsumi stared at him for a second before scrunching up her face at him.
"You're acting weird."
"Am not."
"Yes, you are," Natsumi singsonged.
Her lips twisted into a smile as she reached out to poke him in his side, trying to bring back the levity that had somehow vanished. When her fingers made contact, Riku actually yelped, whipping his head around to glare at her and attempt to grab her hands.
"Too slow!"
She yanked her hands back before he could get ahold of them, grin widening.
"Natsu, cut it out!"
"Nope! Not until you stop being weird," the blonde said, resuming her attack.
Their hands tangled as Riku attempted to fend her off and she started laughing.
"So help me, Natsu, I will push you into the ocean."
His hand landed on her back and she squealed, arms darting out to wrap around him instinctively.
"If I go down, I'm taking you with me!"
"Seriously, cut it out!"
They wobbled at the end of the dock, precariously close to falling in until Riku steadied them. When she felt them steady again, Natsumi let her arms loosen a bit and then looked up at him from under her eyelashes. His cheeks were still red, but he was at least smiling at her again. She returned his smile, feeling her own face start to flush and she was finding that, for some reason, she couldn't look away. When did being this close to Riku start making her stomach tie itself into knots?
Suddenly her mouth was dry and before she could pull away or formulate a sassy remark a familiar voice cried out "Gotcha!" and a pair of hands gave a hard shove against her back. She fell forward off the dock, arms flailing as she hit the water with an undignified smack. The sandy bottom gave way underneath her feet when she regained her senses enough to start heading back to the surface.
Bursting through the surface of the water, she tried to inhale deeply only to start coughing at the water that had gone up her nose. In the background she could hear Sora cackling and Riku shouting at Sora from beside her. He sounded madder than she thought the situation warranted, but as she looked up at Sora with Kairi beside him, covering her mouth and looking just as pleased — and Natsumi had no doubt that Kairi had been the one to push Riku into the ocean — Natsumi felt a spark of irritation at the two as well. Which didn't make sense, because only a few minutes ago she'd been eager for them to arrive so that Riku would finally tell her his idea.
"That was way uncalled for, Sora!"
"Aw, c'mon, Natsumi, it was hilarious!"
"To you, maybe," Riku said, and Natsumi looked over to find that he was scowling.
"Sheesh, guys, lighten up." Kairi clasped her hands behind her back, still smiling down at them. "You act like we don't do this all the time."
"Yeah, but…"
Natsumi trailed off, unable to come up with a reasonable explanation for why this time was different. She couldn't even explain it to herself. The redhead was right — the four of them pushed each other into the ocean all the time, regardless of swimsuits or clothes or the time of day — and with no apparent reason behind her annoyance, Natsumi felt it fizzle out.
"Well I guess now I'll just have to keep my idea for getting to other worlds all to myself."
"What idea?" Kairi asked at the same time Sora dropped to his knees on the dock to peer down at them and say, "No way! You gotta tell us!"
Riku and Natsumi exchanged a look, the silver-haired teen giving her a conspiratorial smirk.
"Nope. Think I'll just tell Natsu."
Sora's face scrunched up in dismay.
"But we promised we'd all go!"
Riku didn't answer right away, instead opting to start swimming back towards the shore. Natsumi followed, wringing the water out from her hair and clothes as soon as they were free from the salt water. Already she could feel her hair and skin drying, strands of hair sticking to her face.
"Come on, Riku, it was just a joke!"
"Yeah, well, your timing sucks," Riku answered, but the exasperated smile on his face as he gave Sora a small shove backwards took out any bite that may have been in the words.
"So," Kairi said, "what exactly is this idea of yours?"
Riku looked at her, and then out over the ocean.
"Let's head out to the play island. I'll tell you guys there."
Natsumi lay in bed, staring up at her glow-in-the-dark stars. Half of them didn't glow anymore, had stopped glowing a few years ago, but some of them still held resiliently onto whatever it was that had made them glow in the first place. Even once the rest of them stopped glowing, she'd keep them all as a reminder of her dreams.
She mulled over Riku's plan, the one he'd finally told the three of them once they'd made it out to the paopu islet where they could look at how the ocean went on forever and watch the sun set. The four of them had grown up with stories of how far the ocean stretched, all the way to the end of the world and beyond. It only made sense that their best chance for leaving Destiny Islands and finding another world was to set sail for the horizon. So after they all eagerly agreed to Riku's idea they'd sat for a while longer, planning out to build a raft, and what supplies they'd need. If they started soon, it could be done a few days after school let out for the summer.
A smile stretched across Natsumi's lips, though there was nobody to see it in the darkness of her room. Though she wasn't exerting herself, her heart was pounding and there was a restless thrum in her veins. Sleep had been evading her for hours now.
Her thoughts kept circling round and round, the word "soon" repeating like a mantra in her head. Soon they would leave. Soon they would find other worlds. Soon she would finally be able to find that castle and then… She'd be able to prove that it wasn't all in her head. Natsumi had always been certain that she'd be able to see the castle again, but it had never before seemed so close.
Soon…
She could hardly wait, and she certainly couldn't sleep. Her head lolled to the side, gaze finding her window, which now had the blinds drawn up so that she could see out of it. Next door, Riku had his blinds drawn up as well, just as he did every night and she knew that if she tried his window it would be open. She stared at it for a moment longer before she got out of bed and walked decisively across her room and opened her window.
It was easy, throwing her leg over the windowsill and dropping the short distance to the ground, so easy that she could have done it in pitch blackness, in her sleep. She tip-toed quickly over the well trodden ground, rapped her knuckles lightly over the glass to let Riku know she was coming in, and opened his window as well.
Riku only had enough time to roll over in his bed before she had crossed his room and was climbing into bed with him. She readjusted his sheet over them, scooting and wiggling until she finally seemed to get comfortable and the two teens were lying nose to nose. Both of them smiled as their eyes met, the room being just light enough for them to see each other's faces.
"Hi."
"Hi," Riku said back, and Natsumi let out a breathless laugh. "Another nightmare?"
Natsumi's smile faltered for just a moment and then she shook her head. The first time she'd ever snuck out of her room and into Riku's had been when they were eight years old, though the nightmares had been plaguing her long before then. That night she'd been so terrified of the images in her dreams she'd thrown open her window without thinking and knocked on Riku's until he let her in. The poor little boy hadn't seemed to know what to do when she threw her arms around him and cried into his shoulder about how scared she was, but he'd brought her into his bed and hugged her until she'd calmed down. Ever since then, Riku left his window unlocked for her.
She never told him what was in her nightmares that frightened her so much, or that they had ceased scaring her a few years ago though she still occasionally had them. She had the sneaking suspicion he knew that she wasn't scared of them anymore and only asked the question out of habit. Saying yes gave them both an excuse for the open windows and lying awake together long after their parents thought they'd gone to bed.
This was the first time she'd told him it wasn't the nightmares that brought her over.
"I can't sleep," she said. "I keep thinking about the raft and how we're finally…"
"Yeah," he said, and Natsumi looked back up at him. "Me too."
His eyes were shining feverishly even through the darkness, setting off a different sort of restlessness underneath her skin. It made her thoughts return to the weird moment they'd had at the end of the dock and how she'd felt in that moment. And if the way Riku had reacted to Sora and Kairi pushing them into the ocean was any indication, he'd felt it too.
Natsumi exhaled softly and reached up to place her hand on his arm. Before she could start to make her way down his arm to his hand, he lifted his hand up to twine their fingers together between them. There was something different about holding hands here, lying in his bed under the cover of darkness. Something that started her thinking maybe there was something to their classmates' whispers.
"Riku…"
She trailed off, not sure what to say. His gaze was steady and she found herself biting her lip. It was just Riku, there was no need to be so nervous, but her heart felt like it was in her throat all the same.
"Wanna go down to the beach?"
Riku nodded almost instantly and said, "Sure."
The little smile he gave her made her heart flutter and her lips stretched into an answering grin before she was pulling away and heading towards his open window. She lifted herself over the sill and out of the window in one fluid motion. When she spun around with her hands still flat against the sill it was to find Riku already standing there with his face inches from her own. Natsumi felt her face growing red, and, though she couldn't be sure of it in the darkness, she thought Riku was blushing as well. Her thoughts had come to a dead stop, supplying her with only one idea.
"Race ya!"
And then she was darting away from his house and towards the beach, not needing to look behind her to know that he was following. The cool night air tugged at her hair — loosed from her ponytail — as she ran and she wasn't sure if the pounding she could hear was her heartbeat, her footsteps, or Riku's footsteps behind her. Her question was answered when Riku passed her, sparing a moment to glance over his shoulder at her and smirk.
Underneath their feet the dirt pathway gave way to the beach, the sand making it harder for her to keep up. Riku had always been faster than her, and on top of that he was taller as well. Even with her head-start, she lost spectacularly.
She came to a stop, breathing heavily. Riku turned back to look at her, bare feet dipping into the wet sand as waves lapped back and forth at the beach. Instead of lording his victory, like he would have over Sora, he seemed to hesitate for a moment and then held out his hand towards her. Natsumi didn't hesitate, closing the distance between them and grasping his offered hand. If there was something different about holding hands in his bed, there was something else that was different about holding his hand on a moonlit beach.
Nothing on Destiny Islands was quite so beautiful as the way the sun shone brightly off the ocean, except for the way the moon shone off the ocean. At night, when the residents and sun were sleeping, something else on the islands seemed to come alive. At night the ocean was a mysterious temptation that called to the darkest corners of her heart. The line between the ocean and sky ceased to exist and there was not a doubt in her mind that that was where they'd be able to go to another world. Nighttime on Destiny Islands was her favorite time of day.
"Soon," Riku said.
His voice echoed her thoughts so clearly she looked over at him sharply to find that he too was staring at the horizon, though she could have sworn she felt his gaze on her only seconds ago. Staring at him, she wondered if the look of determination and longing on his features was the same way she looked when she thought about leaving their island. For a fleeting moment she wondered what it would be like to have him look at her like that. The thought had her blushing again and she looked away from him, despite the fact that she knew he couldn't hear her thoughts.
"We'll all go to the outside world together."
Natsumi looked back up at him, tilting her head curiously.
"...why do you want to leave so bad, Riku?"
Riku met her gaze and then quickly looked away again. Inexplicably, he seemed embarrassed by her question.
"I told you guys. I want to have real adventures. I want to see everything."
"Is that really it?"
Her disappointed question drew his gaze again.
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing. I just… thought there was more."
Silence stretched between them so long she began to think he wouldn't say anything else on the subject.
"I want to get stronger."
"Stronger? For what?"
This time she could tell with certainty that he was embarrassed. He wasn't looking at her, and ran his free hand through his hair.
"You know. To… protect the things that matter," he said, voice trailing off into a mumble at the end and his hand tightening ever so slightly around hers.
His words reminded her of another promise from when they were kids, walking side by side on the beach.
"You don't gotta be scared, Natsu. Sora and I, we'll protect you!"
"Really? You promise?"
"Promise."
A small smile started on her face and she stepped in front of him, leaning forward and forcing him to look at her again.
"What kinda things?"
"You know," he said again, quickly, and offering no further explanation.
"I really don't." The blonde was unable to keep the giggle out of her voice, smile stretching wider. "What kind of things, Riku?"
He looked at her in exasperation, huffing a sigh between barely parted lips. Her lips twitched as she watched him, about to dissolve into a fit of giggles when something changed in his eyes and her smile faltered and fell. The waves lapping against the shore underneath their feet suddenly sounded as loud as they did during the tropical storms that occasionally hit the islands. Natsumi held her breath, waiting for… something. She didn't know what.
"What about you?"
"What?"
That hadn't been what she was waiting for. It was Riku's turn to smirk.
"Why do you want to leave, Natsu?"
"I need to find my castle," she answered and the possessiveness and desperation in her voice surprised her.
"What if… what if our parents are right? And your castle isn't real."
"It is!"
She stepped closer to him, almost stomping her foot and green eyes shining defiantly as she looked up the distance between them. The fire left her almost as quickly as it came.
"I thought you believed me…"
"I do, Natsu, I swear. You and Kairi, we know that you came from other worlds. Maybe the same one."
Natsumi sighed and leaned her forehead against his shoulder. Of course Riku believed her. It was silly of her to think otherwise. He was the one who understood without them even speaking about it. When he let go of her hand to wrap his arms around her shoulders she wrapped hers around his waist in return and finally put a voice to her feelings.
"I just need to find it. It's like there's this… thing, something out there calling to me. And it's so much, sometimes I feel like I'm suffocating. It gets worse when I look at the sky and the ocean, and especially when I look at that door. I feel like it's supposed to be open, and I just—"
Riku's embrace tightened around her and she cut off abruptly. She kept her face buried in his shoulder and took a few deep steadying breaths, feeling her racing heart begin to slow. After a few moments, she felt calm enough to speak again.
"Do you feel it too?" she asked, suddenly unsure. "The wanting, the door, any of it?"
There was weight behind the way she said "any of it", as if she was talking about something different than wanting to get off their island, and after a moment she realized that she was.
"Yeah," he said, and all of the tension slipped from her body, just like that. "There's something out there that's bigger than us, and we're trapped here and… I can't get that door open, either."
She pulled away and looked up at him, awkwardly reclaiming her arms and running a hand over her collarbone.
"You've tried?"
Their eyes met, Riku's lips turning up in an almost smirk as he shook his head at her.
"Did you think you were the only one?"
"Well, yeah, kinda… Hey!" she exclaimed a moment later when he started laughing at her, immediately smacking him on the arm. "Cut it out."
"It's not just you, I promise."
Natsumi turned away from him and back towards the ocean, eyes finding the dark shape of the play island in the water. His promise made her feel better, like there wasn't something strange and out of place about her.
"What do you think's behind it?"
"I don't know," he said, voice coming from beside her. "Wanna find out?"
She looked up at him, and the mischievous smirk on his face. She knew this look from years upon years of calling him her best friend and she found herself returning it.
"Definitely."
A/N: Wowee, this one ended up being a bit longer than the others, and shamelessly Riku/Natsumi-centric. Sorry, not sorry? You knew what you signed up for! Anyways, now we know what Riku's idea was, AND got confirmation that Natsumi is, in fact, from another world. It's really fun for me to write their evolving relationship, shifting from friendship to something else, and I hope you guys are enjoying it too! I also hope that I've got juuuuuust enough mystery in there to keep you guys wondering. As always, thanks for reading, and if you've got time, please leave a review!