Lumineuse: Courage (theme 38) [rough draft]
A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl, written for Reku14's 100 Words challenge
Inspired by Medli45
Summary: Riku is in trouble, and Naminé will do everything in her power to help him.
o.o.o
Naminé was taking a break - very guiltily eating a chocolate cream snack pie while hiding from DiZ in the kitchen storeroom - when there was a crash in the distance.
She was already on edge; the sudden noise startled her into dropping the uneaten half of the chocolate, and she let out a dismayed cry. A few seconds later, she realized that she ought to be concerned about the source of the crash rather than standing here staring forlornly at her lost treat, so she hastily wiped the mess clean and then went to investigate.
A pair of black-clad legs were sticking out of the Item closet, surrounded by scattered empty bottles. "Riku!" Naminé cried. She ran the rest of the way and knelt down beside him.
He seemed to be leaking that red 'blood' stuff again, since there was a bunch of it smeared on the floor beneath him. He looked weak and helpless as he lay there, one of the closet shelves on the floor beside him as if both he and it had fallen down when he'd tried to pull something off of it.
"Riku?"
"Where are...all our...?"
"Oh...it was my turn to go shopping," Naminé said uneasily, "but I forgot. I meant to, but...I've been so busy...I didn't know..." She saw the stupidity of it now. It should have been a higher priority. Riku obviously needed an Item right now and must have run out of his personal stock, but there was nothing left even here in the closet, and- "Riku? Is there...someone you're supposed to be fighting?"
"Heartless," he whispered. There was something wrong about the way he was breathing. "Too many. Need...to stop them...they're coming...mansion..."
"Are they outside?" she whispered.
"Potion...need a...Potion..."
They had nothing. Nothing. Naminé had used their last Potion the day before yesterday, when she'd had a sleep-deprivation headache that made it so hard to work. Now she very much wished she had just endured it and saved the bottle for Riku. "Riku, I'm so sorry."
His hand reached out, groping weakly at nothing until she put her own hand into it. He squeezed her fingers. "Can't help you...like this," he whispered.
"You're hurt really bad?" she said diffidently.
"Trouble...in Agrabah...Shadows swarmed...on the way home..."
"...Maybe I can go buy some Items now and bring them to you."
"Too dangerous."
"...But how are you going to get better if I don't get some Items for you?"
"..."
"I have to do it, don't I?"
"...Can you...use...Keyblade?"
"I think so?" She'd never tried it, but she was pretty sure she could. If she had to.
He shifted, and after a long moment, Way to the Dawn appeared in his hand. "Take it."
"Take...your Keyblade?" Uncertainly, she put her hand near his on the handle, and when she tugged a little, she was surprised and a little pleased when a phantom weapon seemed to materialize in her fingers, drawn out of its parent. Even as she watched, the copy solidified until she could no longer tell with the naked eye that it wasn't a real weapon.
"Good... Worked this time..."
"It's a prettier model than yours," she said, admiring the more feminine design. Then her eyes widened. "I mean- I didn't mean to- Way to the Dawn is very pretty too, it's a good Keyblade, it just, I kind of like this one, it's nice-"
"Naminé..."
"Yes?"
"Be careful."
"I will."
"Coat."
"Huh?"
He started struggling to unzip his protective black coat, but then he fell still.
After a minute, Naminé got worried. "Riku?"
"..."
"Riku?!" She set the Keyblade down and hesitantly tapped his chest. "Riku? Are you okay?"
"..."
"Riku?!" She shook his shoulder, gently at first and then harder.
"Owww," he moaned.
"You were going to lend me your coat..."
"Can't...get it off."
"Can I help?"
"Yes..."
She unzipped the coat. Underneath, half his clothes seemed to be stained red, which was alarming. "Riku?"
"..."
"Riku?!"
"Hurts..." He yelled when she finally got the coat free of his body, which scared her, especially when his face went white afterward and he became very pale and still. She shook him some more, but stopped when tears started leaking out from beneath his blindfold. "Stop."
"I'm sorry, Riku. I'm so sorry."
"Really...really hurts..."
"I'm sorry."
"Get me...Items...please."
"Okay. I will, Riku, I will." She put the coat on. It took a while for her to figure out the two-way zipper. The sleeves covered her hands; she had to push them back in order to pick up her Keyblade copy again. "I'm going, Riku."
"..."
"Riku..." She put the Keyblade back down and laid her palms on the floor on either side of his head and bent down until she was close enough to his face to feel his breath brushing her skin. "Riku, please don't die while I'm gone."
"..."
"Riku..."
"I'll...stick around...for you...Naminé..."
On an impulse, she pressed her lips to his cheek. "I'm really sorry, Riku. I'll save you. Please wait for me."
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry."
"I know."
She fetched a blanket and laid it over him, then she gripped the Keyblade in one hand, took a deep breath, and went outside.
The woods around the mansion were swarming with Heartless - she could see them massing just outside the front gates. "Help," she whispered. But she walked forward alone, and struggled to get the gates open, and then stood facing the army of Shadows. "I'm going to get some Items for Riku. Leave me alone."
They swam through the ground right up to her feet, shuddered up within reach of her weapon, and wriggled around her as if anticipating the taste of her heart.
"I'm the Nobody of a Princess of Heart," she told them, a little proudly. "And I have Riku's coat. You can't turn me to darkness." She reached out and bopped the closest Shadow on the head.
It swiped at her. Its claws raked through the coat, drawing what felt like lines of fire across the front of her leg. It hurt. "Aaaahhh!" Naminé stumbled back, stared down at her leg in shock, and was even more astounded to see red liquid welling up out of the wounds. Red blood. Just like Riku's. It hurt much more than cutting herself with a kitchen knife. And Riku's wounds had been ten times worse. He must be in agony right now. "You Heartless...!" She swung the Keyblade and hit one of them, harder this time. "Don't hurt people!" She hit the Heartless until it finally, finally burst into smoke with a satisfying pop. A munny orb and an HP orb flew through the air and landed nearby, bouncing a little on the grass. By then, the other Heartless had slashed up her legs and lower back, and it hurt so bad that tears were streaming down her face. "Stop!"
Naminé waded through the dark creatures until she reached the green orb, which she was too desperate to eat; she crushed it in her palm instead. It seemed to melt into her skin and brought a cool, sweet relief with it. But just a little bit. And not for long. Because more Heartless were clawing at her, and she wanted to run back to Riku and lie down next to him and die, because that's what you did when something hurt this bad. "Leave me alone!"
She gave up fighting and tried to just run, feeling like she was stepping on fire. But the Heartless kept catching her, until her ears started ringing and she knew that one or two more strikes would kill her. "Sora, help me..."
Sora. Sora could fight the Heartless, and...she could always reach him. Even when she wasn't supposed to.
With tears streaming down her face and no paper or anything to draw with at hand, Naminé began scratching her own forearm with a fingernail, sketching invisible pictures into her skin. 'Sora, I need you...I really need you, I'm so sorry...' Memories began to flow into her mind. Memories of gripping a Keyblade firmly in both hands, of swinging into darkness, of dodging and rolling and counterattacking...
Naminé relaxed her body into Sora's muscle memory, her vision distorted as the forest around her half-blurred into Sora's memories of Wonderland, stealing more and more precious chain-links of memory away from Sora to help her carve her way through the Shadows. Spots of quickly-fading sweet coolness startled her whenever an HP orb happened to land close enough to be drawn into her body. "Sora...your light is so strong...forgive me..." This was going to be such a mess to sort out later, but Riku needed her, and she didn't think Sora would mind if he knew. "Leave me alone," she told the Heartless. "Leave me alone, leave me alone...!"
She reached the hole in the wall and crawled through it, trembling until Sora's memories slowly finished slipping away (some of them to Xion or Roxas instead of back to their true owner...) and she no longer felt like she was struggling in a nightmare. People were giving her strange looks as she limped through the streets. She practically fell through the door of the Item shop and staggered to the counter, leaving a trail of blood behind her. "I need healing Items. Please."
The clerk stared at her, then picked up a bottle and poured the contents over her head.
Naminé nearly cried in relief when the pain finally went away. "Thank you so much."
"That was, um, a promotional special," the man said cautiously. "Er, could I interest you in our high-quality Tents?"
"I need some Elixirs."
"Ah...Elixirs, yes. How many, ma'am?"
"I think maybe thirty."
He raised his eyebrows. "Thir-? Er, wonderful." Then he told her how much that order would cost, and Naminé nearly fell down, she was so shocked.
"I don't have that much munny!"
"Perhaps you would like to place a more affordable order?" he said delicately.
"Um...can I at least have one Elixir to give to Riku, then we can come back shopping later?"
"Of course. One Elixir will be 800 munny, ma'am."
"Eight hun-! For just one Elixir?! That's still too much!"
She didn't like the way he was looking at her now.
"Riku's hurt really bad. He needs it."
"Perhaps I could interest you in a Hi-Potion, ma'am?"
Hi-Potions were much cheaper than Elixirs, so Naminé agreed to buy one. Then she discovered that she'd forgotten to bring any munny with her at all. "Oh no! I should have stopped and asked DiZ for some when I left... Can I have the Hi-Potion now to give to Riku, then come back and pay for it when he's better?"
Minutes later, Naminé was nearly crying as she rushed toward the closest news board, feeling humiliated. 'I'm so stupid, I forgot to bring munny and now I have to earn it, but it might take a long time and Riku's still lying there and he's hurt so bad and he's going to think I abandoned him...what if he dies...?'
She didn't know how to use a skateboard. If she could barely even kill the weakest of the Heartless, she would certainly be no good at most of these jobs. But...
"Poster Duty?" All she would have to do was put up posters as fast as she could. If she used dark corridors instead of just walking, she could finish a route in a minute or two...though only if the corridors cooperated. Which...didn't happen often. Oh well. Naminé would make them cooperate. Maybe she could reach through Sora's memories to get to Riku's, and use his knowledge of the corridors? Maybe? If that was at all possible, Sora and Riku's bond was strong enough for that, right? She could at least try. "But this isn't enough munny for a Hi-Potion...maybe I could do it more than once?"
Ten extremely frustrating minutes later, with a Hi-Potion finally gripped in one hand, Naminé rushed back to the hole in the wall, ran through the woods, ignored the Heartless, stumbled and kept running when they hurt her again, slammed the gates closed, limped into the mansion, struggled over to the Item closet, and was hugely relieved to see Riku still lying there.
Until he failed to respond when she called him. "Riku! Riku! Riku!" He didn't move or say anything when she shook him this time. Frantically, she felt his chest, and had to stick her hand down his shirt and press right on his skin before she could finally sense his heartbeat. So weak. "Wait, Riku! Don't die, I can fix you now!" She opened the Hi-Potion and poured it straight onto the worst of his wounds.
He made such a huge gasp that she jumped, and the last of the potion splashed into his face. "Ack!"
"I'm sorry, Riku! I'm sorry!"
"Am I still alive?"
"Yes...I think..."
"I feel awful."
"Even with the Hi-Potion?"
"Yes."
But Riku stood up. "You still got my coat?"
"Yes."
There was a pause.
"Can I have it back?"
"Oh! Yes." She struggled to get it off. "Are you going to fight the Heartless now?"
"Yeah." He took the coat and pulled it over his shoulders. She crouched down to stick the insertion pin into the slider, then rose back to her feet as she pulled the slider up to his chest. He was standing very still with his face turned to her, as if he was staring at her through the blindfold. She stared back. "Um...you zipped my coat for me?"
"You need to wear it, don't you?"
After a long pause in which she wondered if she'd done something wrong, he finally laughed. "You're so funny..."
"Was I not supposed to zip it?"
"People don't usually zip other people's clothes."
"Oh. They don't?"
"Usually."
"Oh."
"..."
"..."
"Well, I'm going to go fight the Heartless now." He awkwardly reached to unzip the lower part of the coat so that he could walk. "Just for the record, you pull up both of the zippers when you're putting the coat on. You leave the lower one wherever you want it, and keep pulling up the top one until it's all closed."
"Oh. Okay." No wonder it had been so hard to get the coat on earlier. "Be careful, Riku."
"I will."
She went to the window and watched as he strode across the lawn. He was so quick and graceful and strong as he fought, it made her a little jealous even though at the same time she thought it was beautiful. Whole swaths of monsters disappeared in the wake of sparkling light. The puny ones she'd had to hit so much to destroy took only one blow from him before vanishing. He barely even stumbled the one or two times the stronger ones managed to land a hit on him. "Go, Riku," she whispered.
The horde was wiped out in minutes. Naminé went down to join him outside. "You did a good job, Riku."
"Heh. Thanks." To her surprise, he leaned close and laid a light kiss on her temple. "You did great yourself, Naminé."
"When I got the Hi-Potion for you?"
"It was very brave of you to do that."
"It was my fault. I had to fix it."
"You didn't have to."
"..."
"Heh. I insulted you, didn't I. I'm sorry."
"I had to."
"Thank you, Naminé. I really appreciate it."
"You're welcome. And I'm sorry, for wasting the Potions and not going shopping and stealing your corridor memories and them wrong anyway-"
"You've already apologized a lot. Once was enough. And if messing with my memories helped you just now, you don't need to apologize for that."
"Okay."
After a pause, he dismissed his Keyblade. "Well, come on."
"Huh?"
He smiled. "We both worked hard today. We deserve a reward."
"A reward?"
"I'll treat you to dinner."
"Treat...?"
"It means I'll pay for it."
"You'll pay for dinner?"
"It's..." He shook his head. "Just come on, Naminé."
"Okay, but I don't have a reward to give you back... I already ate one of the cream pies when I was supposed to be working, DiZ will notice if I take another one for you."
"Huh?"
"And I don't have any munny until DiZ gives me some for shopping, so I can't buy new treats unless there's munny left over after I buy supplies and food and stuff."
"I don't know if you're overly modest, or if I'm just really bad at explaining things..."
o.o.o
Author's Notes: Well, it's about that time again... It's been ten days since I last posted something, and my muse got restless. ^^; I'd been intending to save the plunnies people have been suggesting for something else, but it was handy to have them now, especially when a couple of Medli's plunny suggestions wrote themselves in my head. XD (One of them was this story [lol I guess my muse is still obsessed with RikuNami]; the other one is a VenVan AU that I'm debating whether to write now, or later when I'll need the plunny list.)
Speaking of which, do you guys have anymore short, specific Kingdom Hearts ideas for me~? :3 I'm collecting a list of suggestions for a couple of upcoming events where I temporarily won't have access to my older projects, and I won't be able to do anything fun except write entirely new stories.
Man, I'd VERY SPECIFICALLY tried to write this fic in an attempt to characterize Naminé better, but she ended up exactly the same as I write her in my other fics. DX Argh, I feel like a failure when I can't meet a writing goal. :/ If I want to be a professional, I ought to be able to do this sort of thing, so it's alarming when I can't.
Again, Naminé seems to be able to use the dark corridors normally in KH2, but in the manga, she totally fails at them. XD It's cute.
I wrote Riku & Naminé's relationship in this fic intending it to be entirely platonic. I know that it's probably easy to mistake as romance unless you're familiar with my other writing, but there's absolutely no romantic/sexual element in the love they express for each other here (both kisses were innocent ones); their affection is meant to be platonic. At this point in their relationship, Riku sees Naminé as sort of a younger sister to look after, and Naminé sees him as the closest thing she has to a friend.
Complete: 6/100
