Riku's Pretend Lovelife: Namine

Though his parents may not admit it at times, Riku was not only handsome, he was smart. After word got around that he had broken up with Kairi, Riku spent all weekend with Kairi and Namine. He felt the need to make it up to them for dumping them, considering it a minor detail that he hadn't even dated Namine yet, let alone dumped her.

He had also been secretly finding out Namine's likes and dislikes, to pick a good place to take her. He decided on a weekend afternoon between meals date, and pulled up to Namine and Kairi's house on Sunday. Riku had taken the figures of how much it had cost to take Kairi out, and almost turned as pale as his hair when he realized what kind of money he'd need to continue dates like that every other week. Not covered by his allowance, definitely.

Riku let himself into Kairi's house and called out if anyone was home. He decided a lunch date was more casual, because Namine seemed more laid back, and more shy. It was better to make her feel comfortable. Riku had it covered.

Kairi came out of the kitchen with a juice box in her hand. "Hey," she said, sipping on it as she approached Riku. She lifted an eyebrow, and reached up to yank on his hair that was tied back neatly in a ponytail. "What's this?"

"Easy!" Riku said, batting her hand away. "What are you, in the third grade?" Like an eight year old pulling on the ponytail of the girl they liked. Geeze. "I was going for the uh, laidback attractive medieval sort of look."

"Hm," was all Kairi said, the slurping noise indicating the juice box was empty.

"What do you mean, 'Hm'? I like to dress for the environment! Its not MY fault you don't see the beauty in my genius," Riku pretended to be hurt until Namine came down the stairs.

"Hi, Riku!" She said, cheerfully, slipping her shoes on.

"Hi," Riku replied, catching Kairi's look that indicated he'd be barbequed alive if Namine didn't have a good time. "I uh, took the top off my car so, watch your hair." He'd watch his own hair, so he should equally care about others, right?

Namine just smiled and followed Riku out the door. Riku politely opened the car door for her, and then made a fun show of vaulting into his car without opening his own. Man, he was cool.

"Where are we going?" Namine asked, immediately liking the feel of the breeze in her hair as soon as Riku took off down the road.

"It's a little place I know. Actually, I've never been there but it seemed cool."

Namine enjoyed the ride in Riku's car, but she found she didn't have much to say to him. Riku wasn't particularly talkative either, but it wasn't so bad. The wind was whipping in their ears, anyway.

Riku employed his door this time as they arrived at their destination in the middle of downtown. He dropped some quarters in the parking meter and made sure that there were no hobos in the immediate vicinity, and nothing in particular to steal from his car. He didn't worry so much about the actual car, with his parents kind of money they'd have it back before his next date anyway.

The building before them was short and squat, jammed in between Mary's Merry Maids, a dry cleaners run by foreigners, and some new age place where you could pay to lie around in a metal triangle cage and learn about how sound invented the universe. The building that Riku held the door open to was called "Sicilie's".


Roxas was asleep on his textbook and Sora was staring blankly at a weird painting that claimed to be a woman with a cello hanging on the wall opposite where they were sitting. Really, it was some blocks of cheese with a distorted face and a stick for a hand. The stick appeared to be stabbing into a giant gourd, out of which flowed the water of life and destiny. Or that's what Sora decided, anyway. The jingle on the small bell tied to the door forced his attention that direction, and he watched two pale-haired teenagers enter the shop.

"Worst luck ever!" he muttered, quickly picking up his textbook and propping it up in front of his face. Okay, last time they had intentionally stalked Riku and his date, this time they had TOTALLY been there first.

Sora looked over and noticed Roxas drooling on his textbook in plain sight. "Wake up!" he whispered urgently, shaking his shoulder. Roxas sat up and Sora could see the phrase 'well endowed down south' had rubbed off on his cheek from the southern islands chapter of his history book.

"What?" Roxas inquired sleepily, seeing that Sora looked somewhat nervous and was hunched behind his textbook. "Sora…"

Roxas became wide awake when Sora grabbed his collar and pulled him extremely close to his face. "Shhh…" he whispered, putting his finger on Roxas' lips. "Don't talk."

This is the moment Roxas would remember as the very first time he distinctly felt his heart beating in his chest. It was seemingly faster than normal, but not spurred on by physical exertion. For a moment, he wondered if he was experiencing a serious medical condition.

Sora moved to put Roxas' textbook up, too. He peeked around his own and watched Riku and Namine walk by, each with a beverage in their hand. The place was famous for good smoothies, coffee, and other drinks, as well as its basement activities. The two stopped to stare at the painting that Sora had previously been making up stuff about, and Namine seemed to be telling Riku about it. Riku however, looked confused.

"I don't get it," he said flatly. "It looks like someone puked on the canvas." Riku took a drink of his frappuccino. "Or like the death of a disproportionate baby."

Namine smiled and laughed sort of awkwardly. Riku sure was blunt. She looked at him and he seemed like he was getting into a mental fight with the painting for simply existing. Sora watched them head downstairs, hearing Riku's voice trail behind him, asking Namine what would be better than ten dead babies nailed to a tree. She answered eleven to humor him, but didn't find it so humorous when he said "One dead baby nailed to ten trees!"

Sora looked back at Roxas, who seemed to be sort of dumbstruck. He wondered if he'd fallen asleep with his eyes open. "You want to follow them?" Sora asked.

Roxas rubbed his face a little and moved away from Sora. "Uh, I guess? I've never been down in the basement before."

The basement gave the feel of an underground coffee shop, plush couches and quaint little tables tucked in each corner, along with a small stage. Namine and Riku sat near the middle, and therefore made it easy for Sora and Roxas to sneak onto a couch in the back under the dim light. There was a small, lighted stage in the front with one microphone on it.

Roxas spotted two people in the other corner of the room with their hands all over each other. "Well, at least they aren't doing THAT," he muttered. Sora looked over and tried not to stare. It was clear the two teenagers were of the opinion that the drinks weren't the only tasty thing in the shop.

"What's going on?" Namine asked Riku, after a little bit of silence. She wiped at the condensation on her cup of iced tea.

"A poetry reading, I guess," Riku replied, trying his very best to make himself sound interested. He'd picked it because it seemed like something Namine would like.

"Oh! Interesting," she responded. It seemed to lighten her mood a little. There was no more conversation between them before the poet padded out onto the stage.

Riku and Namine blinked a few times at the young man dressed all in black, trying for the life of them to figure out how the Organization's number six of all people had found his way to Destiny Islands. Riku watched him place a stool in front of the microphone, and you could hear the sounds of the mic being moved to accommodate his short stature.

Sora made one of those faces that indicated he didn't get something, but it must be messed up. "What's he doing here?" Sora asked, turning to Roxas. Roxas appeared to be paying close attention with his eyes closed. "Wake UP," he said, prodding Roxas hard in the stomach.

"Ow!" Roxas whined, sitting up from where he had been napping. He peered at the stage, and seemed to take absolutely no interest in what was there. Roxas toppled over and his head landed on Sora's shoulder.

Zexion blew lightly into the microphone and surveyed the tiny audience. Riku, and Namine he recognized, but he paid them no heed. Some kids making out in the corner, a few other people here and there. Some faces he couldn't place back in the darkness. Zexion didn't mind. He was here for one thing only.

"What is a heart?" he said into the microphone, his flat and somewhat dull voice echoing in the little basement. Riku tried as hard as he could to not burst out laughing.

Zexion went on.

"What is death, but rebirth?

Left is the forbidden way yet I am LEFT. (He emphasized this word like a small explosion into the microphone)

In the darkness and the myriad of non-light.

With the brainless and the bounty less in the bile."

Zexion paused here for some indiscriminate amount of time. He sort of looked off to nowhere and Riku turned around to try and decide what he was looking at. He turned back around and found himself staring at how the light gave Zexion's hair a distinct blue tint, and remained perplexed by its many layers and angles as it concealed his right eye from the audience.

" LIFE! (Another small explosion)

Was written to me in black and white and I-

I did not see the meaning.

Its ten point font glared and mocked me.

What is a heart, what is a soul, and where is my mind?

Clearly in elevation above the masses-"

Zexion, seemingly on a roll with his deep, transcending poetry, was suddenly interrupted by Riku slurping rudely on the end of his drink. "Are you calling me dumb?" he challenged.

Zexion stared at him boredly. "Well, in a sense, if you would like to put it that way, in a roundabout manner, yes," he replied.

Riku rolled his eyes, as Namine tried to hush him while the other audience members whispered to each other. "Well, I think your poem is dumb." Riku replied.

Zexion calmly slid off the stool. He held his hand out to the microphone. "Then please come enlighten us."

"Fine, I will," the scrape of Riku's chair reverberated off the walls and he sauntered up to the mic. Riku kicked over the stool, probably just to be a jerk, but he thought it looked cool. He then proceeded to pull his hair out of the ponytail so it effectively fell in his eyes. Zexion seated himself next to Namine, nodding a polite hello at her. She looked as if she was suddenly very tired.

Sora shook Roxas violently. "Wake up, wake up! Riku's gonna make up poetry!" he said, urgently. Roxas groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

He saw Riku on the stage, staring at the ceiling as if he were thinking. "What the hell's he think he's doing?" Roxas asked groggily.

Riku tapped the microphone experimentally.

"Hey," he said, pausing to look at Zexion, who simply drummed his fingers on the table in front of him.

"I don't think about stuff much, but what can you do?

What can I do?

Well, this is the idea: Its two years after then and I'm still THAT hott, and I'm still THAT smooth, and still more popular than, you guessed it. YOU." (He had to accomplish his minor explosion here.)

Riku sighed pointedly into the mic.

"But I'm still too far behind, too far away, way too far off and as far as conflicting interests go, far too many. One brunette and one redhead, two shots and two targets and I'm afraid," he shrugged. "One I may have already missed."

Riku quirked an eyebrow at Zexion, who nodded politely. He walked away from the mic and flipped his hair a little, standing over the table as the beatniks in the room snapped or clapped or whatever they do to show their emo-soul appreciation.

"You're RIDICULOUS," Namine told him, with a small smile, iced-tea straw between her teeth.

"You mean incredible?" Riku asked, pulling up a chair. "Or did you mean teeming with unsurpassable sex appeal? Great beyond comprehension? C'mon, its okay to say it."

Namine felt confident enough to whack him in the arm. "Just ridiculous. Sometimes borderline idiotic. And rude, to boot. Need I mention more?"

Riku smirked. He definitely saw that little bit of Kairi in her.

Sora stared blankly. He wasn't one to interpret poetry but, even he understood something fishy about that serenade.

"Sora?" Roxas asked, poking at his shoulder. Sora was non-responsive. Roxas realized it was time to make like a baby and head out. Especially if they wanted to continue living seeing as how Namine and Riku looked as if they were preparing to leave.

Roxas pulled and prodded Sora out the door of the shop, and far enough away to be out of sight and hopefully remain out of mind. Sora looked a little on vacation from his at the moment.

"Roxas to Sora, come in!" Roxas said, waving a hand in front of his face.

"So…Riku likes a brunette and a redhead?" Sora finally said. Roxas felt slightly irritated at the reminder, though he wasn't sure what made that happen.

"Yeah. So…what are you gonna do?" Finding out your best friend sorta likes you, that's kind of big. Roxas wouldn't know what he would do.

Sora shrugged. "If Riku wants to like Axel I don't think its any of my-"

Roxas' mouth dropped open. Could Sora be more dense? Roxas hit him, no qualms about how hard, either.

"Ow!" Sora complained, holding his shoulder and pouting.

"He's not talking about Axel, you retard," Roxas pointed out.

"Why not?" Sora argued. "He's the reddest head I've ever seen!" It only made sense to pick him!

Roxas shook his head. "No, he's more like a black and red head," Roxas decided.

"So he's a…bread head? A bled head? A rack head! A um," Sora tried out the combinations he could think of before Roxas hit him again.

"Ow! You're going to make me bruise!" Sora rubbed his shoulder again.

"He's obviously talking about Kairi, and JUST so you don't make up some stupid delusion, the brunette is most probably you," Roxas pointed out, feeling that irritation grow a little bit inside him.

Sora pointed to himself silently. He could be so stupid. Roxas grabbed his arm and started to drag him home.

"The real question is, which does he think he missed?" Roxas muttered.

Seemingly to feed Roxas' irritation, Sora didn't dumbly point at himself like a trained monkey this time.

"He went on a date with Kairi, and they 'broke up'. So logically…" Sora paused to get Roxas' opinion.

He didn't like the word 'logic' coming out of Sora's face. It was wrong and went against the natural order of the world.

Roxas sighed. "Then logically, I think you've got a problem on your hands."


"Hey," Riku said, as he dropped Namine off at her house. He looked at her somewhat seriously, a little different from his usual could-care-less manner.

"I won't tell, I promise," Namine said, holding up her fingers that were crossed. "Thanks for the date, Riku." She touched his arm briefly. "Don't miss that second shot." Namine smiled and started towards her front door, as Riku placed his head on the steering wheel to allow the stupid ness and mild embarrassment to seep from him before driving home.