Sunday, 9th October, 2011

Kairi gave a bark of nervous laughter. 'That's a joke right? You're joking?'

Xion looked her in the eyes and shook her head rapidly. 'Not even a little bit,' she said quietly.

'Can I help you?' the guy manning the candy floss stall was looking at us boredly, clearly over our conversation, which he'd been eavesdropping on.

'Uh,' I said, glancing over my shoulder at Riku and Namine. He was staring at her dumbly and she was signing at him rapidly, occasionally touching his arm with a desperate look on her face. It didn't look like it was going to be over any time soon. 'We'll take three,' I said. 'Thanks.'

He got to work and handed over the candy floss, his hand lingering over Kairi's for a minute as he smiled at her.

Kairi rolled her eyes. 'Oh please,' she said, looking him up and down meanly.

'You have got to be kidding.'

With which she turned and walked away from him, leaving Xion and I to shrug at the poor boy apologetically before following after her. He didn't seem so "poor" though; if anything he looked pretty pleased with her reaction and chased after me, slipping a piece of paper into my hand.

'My number,' he said, smirking. 'Give it to her?'

I shook my head in wonder but agreed. 'Fine. But I'm not promising anything, her heart currently belongs to that sex god over there.' I nodded in Riku's direction, who was still in a state of catatonic shock with Namine.

Candy floss boy look looked unfazed. 'I'm not worried,' he said arrogantly. 'That guy's gay.'

I choked on my own spit and he patted me on the back a little worriedly. 'He's not,' I said hoarsely.

'Yeah, but you wish, right?' he asked, smirking again.

'If you want me on-side for getting in my best friend's pants, I'd shut up right now if I were you,' I warned him.

'What's her name?'

'Kairi.'

'Aren't you going to ask me mine?'

'I don't care. And neither does she,' I added, turning and following after Kairi and Xion, who were examining a water gun stall with unnecessary intensity.

'What did he want?' Kairi snapped, glaring at me. I held up my hands in defense.

'Relax,' I said, 'I'm not after your Candy man. He wanted me to give you this.' I held out the slip of paper with his number on it.

Kairi looked at it uncertainly for a moment, and then turned back around without taking it.

'Shall I bin it?' I asked.

Kairi's face creased confusion as she battled some internal force, then sighed.

'No. Keep it for a while. But if he really likes me, he'll find me again.' She turned to Xion. 'Right?'

'Right,' Xion said definitively, folding her arms.

'You guys are categorically nuts,' a glum voice said from behind us, and we all whirled around to see Riku standing there looking depressed.

''Ku,' Xion said softly, wrapping her arms around him. He stood there and let her hug him, not hugging back but not pulling away either. 'Do you want to talk about it?'

'Maybe later,' he said, clearly having no intention of it.

'So um… What happens now? She's not going home till tomorrow, right?'

'Ku sighed. 'Sora,' he said, turning to me, and I nearly hugged him too, he looked so glum. 'Would it be okay if I stayed at yours tonight?'

'Uh, yeah, sure,' I said, tripping over myself to do anything I could to help him. I saw Kairi out of the corner of my eye start to get excited – she was supposed to be staying over last night as well – but I shot her a warning look and she quickly backed down, turning back to Xion.

'Girls' night,' she said. 'The three of us can bond.'

'Or you can just referee our boxing match,' Xion said darkly, and Kairi's eyes widened.

'Uh, I do have work this evening though,' I interrupted, looking at Riku. 'Will you be okay on your own?'

He paused, blinking at me. 'Could I come with you?'

I stared at him, and then nodded. 'Sure. Of course,' I said softly. I've never exactly been through a rough break-up, but I'm not an idiot, I know they're hard. Plus Leon has made me feel shit enough about myself from time to time to know how my fair shares about relationship troubles.

Which is how I ended up dropping a seething Xion, a nervous Kairi, and a penitent Namine off at the Dawn house, then continuing on to work, where Yuffie was being particularly mischievous and, I think, contributed to cheering Riku up a bit.

The nurses and assistants were really understanding about him being around and didn't say anything about him traipsing about after me silently. Then Yuffie tried to hide one of her shoes in the hood of his hoodie, freaking the crap out of him because he hadn't heard her sneaking up behind him, and he actually laughed and spent the rest of the evening following her around instead, fascinated by her tales of living in a nudist colony and deeply amused at her efforts of rebellion.

After work he sat in the passenger seat of my car as I drove us back to my Dad's apartment, and turned to look at me with a hangdog expression on his face, not even lifting his head as he did so. 'Sora?'

'Hm?' I asked, concentrating on the road.

'Will you come and live in a nudist colony with me?'

For the second time today I choked on my own spit. I covered it a lot better this time though, I don't think he even noticed. I glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow, and then returned my attention to the road, which was blurring. 'Only one person in this car has the body for a nudist colony,' I said dryly, hardly believing my daring.

'Let's start our own nudist colony.'

'There's only one problem with that. Actually, two.'

'Yeah?'

'Well firstly, public nudity is illegal and I don't want to go live in a forest. And secondly we'd have to let Kairi and Xion join too, and I don't like seeing girls naked. And I hope you don't want to see Xion naked.'

Riku wrinkled his nose. 'I don't want to see any girls naked ever again,' he muttered, turning to look out the window.

A few minutes later I pulled up outside my dad's apartment complex and led Riku up to third floor. My dad was in the bathroom, sloshing around in the bath, singing along to a Glee soundtrack. It seemed like he was in better spirits.

'Hi dad!' I shouted, fixing Riku and I drinks from the kitchen.

'Hi!' he shouted back.

'Riku's staying over tonight!'

'Does this mean you finally dumped Leon?'

'No!' I shouted back, mortified that my dad would bring up a break up at this critical moment.

Riku chuckled though, not taking it to heart. 'Does anybody like your boyfriend?'

I shrugged. 'I do. I guess. And he certainly does.'

'Yeah I got that vibe too.'

I led us to my bedroom and we sat down, me looking worriedly at Riku and him staring into the middle distance.

'She said she couldn't deal with a long-distance relationship,' he said numbly, and my heart broke. 'We were just arguing about the ride, which I wasn't worried about, because we always argue like that, and then we make up, and stuff. And then she blurted it out that she was planning on breaking up with me this weekend anyway as long as it seemed like I was happy here. As if having new friends and a lift to school means I don't need her anymore or something.'

I reached out tentatively and put my hand on his arm. 'How long were you together?'

'Four months,' he said glumly, and then looked up at me before I could hide my expression, and laughed. 'I know, I know. It's hardly any time really. And it's not like I'm in love with her. But, I was getting there.'

I paused for a second, and then wrapped my arms around him in a hug. He rested his arms over mine and rested his head on my shoulder, and I'm not sure how, but somehow we fell asleep that way.