Here is Chapter 9! I told you guys I'd be updating quickly now that the holidays are over! I should have the next chapter fairly soon, as well, and will probably post it this weekend. Enjoy!

I don't own anything here but Rianxan.


The Spirited Reverie

By

LadyDarkDreamer


Chapter 9:

As she stepped through the portal, Ria had a satisfied smile on her face. Zexion followed close behind her, setting a hand on her shoulder after a second.

Rianxan turned, and gave him a questioning look. "You might want to close the portal now," he said.

She nodded, and Zexion moved to the side. Ria closed her eyes, and stood there a moment focusing her power. When she had formed a strong thought to instruct the portal to do what she wanted, she gestured with her hand towards the portal. The dark vortex closed, leaving them in a white hallway.

Zexion nodded in approval, and looked around for a moment.

"Maybe next time…" he began, walking down to where the hallway intersected with another, "You might, well…want to be more specific in choosing a location." He looked down the next corridor, and turned back to Ria.

She smiled at the remark, and walked over to where he stood. "I will," she promised, "I really don't want to end up someplace I don't recognize, or worse."

Zexion looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Worse?"

She shook her head. "You should use your imagination more often," she said lightly. "I wouldn't want to end up, lets say, in someone's room or anything like that. It'd be embarrassing."

"Yes, I imagine it would," he replied. She could see a bit of humor in his eyes.

Ria gave him a look, putting her hands on her hips. She ended up shaking her head again, and turning around in a full circle.

"So, any idea where we are?"

"Somewhat."

Ria watched him for a moment. "Somewhat?"

Zexion just took a step away and pointed down the passageway leading west—at least, Ria thought it was west.

"I think we're somewhere near the kitchen," he explained, "Which is, actually, exactly where I want to be."

"Really? Why?" Ria asked, following Zexion as he set off down the hallway.

It was Zexion's turn to give her a look. "I'm hungry, and it's where the food is."

This Ria understood, and of course, at the mention of food, her stomach reminded her of the initial reason she had left her room. She hadn't eaten since arriving in Castle yesterday. Hunger had been forgotten during the quickness of battle and trying to learn how to open a dark portal. But now, without anything to occupy her mind, she really felt as if she would pass out unless she had something to eat.

As they walked, she absently pushed her hair out of her face. Finally, she asked, "Um…would you mind if I joined you?"

Zexion stopped walking, and gave her a questioning expression.

Not able to find a better way to put the question, she said, "Can I come with you to get something to eat? I haven't had anything all day."

"Of course," Zexion answered, glancing at her as they started walking again. "And why exactly haven't you eaten yet?"

Ria found herself feeling embarrassed, again. "I didn't know where the kitchen was," she admitted. Lowering her eyes, she watched her boots hit the floor as she walked.

"You didn't think to ask anyone?"

She raised her head and looked at him. "No, I didn't think to ask anyone. I was searching for the kitchen earlier, when Axel caught me."

When he didn't say anything, Ria didn't bother to fill the silence. After some time, he asked, "I was wondering about that. What…exactly were you doing in my room?"

Immediately upon hearing the question, Ria felt the blood rushing to her cheeks. In an attempt to hide her embarrassment, she ran her hands through her hair and let the waves fall around her face. Silently hoping with all her being that he wouldn't glance over, she tried to think of a good way to answer.

Apparently she took to long, because Zexion stopped and look at her.

Ria sighed, and opted no to think too much about her answer. "Like I said, I ran into Axel while looking for the kitchen. I wanted to avoid him, so I opened the first door I came to," she explained, slowly raising her eyes to meet his. "I'm so sorry; I really had no idea it was your room! I was in too much of a hurry to notice the numerals on the door. As soon as I realized I was someone's room, I left."

She expected him to say something, anything like "you had no right to be there, or to open that door", but he didn't. Instead, he nodded.

"I understand completely," he said, "Don't worry about it; I just wanted to know why."

Ria just stood there for several seconds. "But—"

He took a step closer to her. "Don't worry about it," he repeated, holding her gaze a moment. His eyes then drifted to something behind her.

"Okay," she replied, not knowing what else to say. "What are you looking at?"

"Kitchen," he said. She turned as he walked around her, and found she was standing in front of a wide arched doorway.

"Oh."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Demyx cursed, tossing the sponge he held across the room. It was a powerful throw, but still the sponge fell a foot short of the far wall.

"This sucks," he muttered. Crossing his arms, he leaned his back against the stained wall and slid to the ground.

There he sat for the next ten minutes, dressed in boots, black jeans and a blue T-shirt. His cloak lay in the middle of the room, where he had tossed it nearly an hour ago. His gloves were still on his hands, as a way to keep from rubbing his skin raw while scrubbing the walls.

Only a small section of wall was clean. It had taken him the entire past hour to scrub the blackness off that TINY piece of stone.

And in the last hour, he'd discovered two things: one, that the black stains from Axel's fire came off just fine…after a whole bunch of scrubbing.

Demyx was surprised his arms hadn't fallen off yet.

The second thing he had learned was that the bright marks from Roxas's element—light—were never going to come off.

"How the hell can light stain anything, anyway?" Demyx asked in frustration.

And then the answer came to him: Roxas.

Wondering why he hadn't thought of the brilliant idea before, Demyx happily got to his feet. Roxas had made the bright stains on the walls, so surely he could replicate the process again and make the rest of the training room that way. It would solve the problem of the black marks, and the training room would look brand new.

Now, where to find the boy?

Demyx sighed a little; he was too tired to go searching for Number XIII himself.

Another idea struck him, and Demyx smiled. Without wasting a moment, he summoned one of his Dancers. It appeared a few feet away, moving gracefully as it waited for his instructions.

"Go find Roxas," he told it.

The Dancer stood there for a moment, and then disappeared.

His smile widened. Demyx then leaned against the wall, and waited.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"You know, once you learn to open and close a portal quickly," Zexion explained, "You can then summon one around yourself, and not have to bother with opening it elsewhere."

Ria nodded, watching Zexion from where she sat at a good-sized wooden table. Thank goodness, the table wasn't white.

True, the floor and the counters were white, but the appliances and scant furniture were stainless steel and black. Contrasting, somewhat harsh colors, but still…it was color.

Zexion glanced at her as he walked over from the stove, carrying two plates. He set one down in front of Ria, and took a seat beside her.

Saying thanks, Ria looked at the food in front of her and picked up her fork. Zexion had fixed scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast for them both.

"I still can't believe you cook," she said. Standing up, she searched the fridge and returned with a bottle of water.

As she sat down, Zexion shrugged and began eating. After swallowing, he said, "As Nobodies, we don't actually have to eat or sleep, or anything like that. But most of us tend to still do those things, because it's habit. We did it when we were human, so it only seems right to keep doing it."

"Makes sense," Ria answered, standing up again to grab a bottle of ketchup from the fridge. She put some on her plate beside the eggs, and took a bite out of her toast. She then tried the eggs, and found them extremely good. As late dinners went, it was high on the scale of, well, goodness.

"This is really good," she said. She opened the water bottle and took a sip.

The meal continued, filled with some mild conversation.

Finally, after finished the last of the food, Ria looked around at the white walls.

"You know," she said, "This place is very white. It reminds me of a hospital, a bad hospital."

At this, Zexion choked a bit on whatever he had been chewing on. Concerned, Ria quickly stood up and searched the cabinets for a glass. Finding one, she filled it with water from the sink and handed it to him.

Zexion swallowed and drank nearly all of the water. Setting down the glass, he glanced over at Ria.

"Sorry," she offered as she sat back down.

Shaking his head, Zexion drank the rest of the water. "It's okay, it's not your fault. You just caught me by surprise."

Ria smiled. "Really, I'm serious," she said, "Everything in this castle is white, and it's starting to drive me a little crazy."

"You get used to it after awhile."

Shaking her head in disbelief, Ria continued, "I definitely want to do something with my room, paint it if I can."

Zexion opened his mouth to reply, but another voice filled the kitchen.

"There you two are! I've been looking for both of you for the last hour."


This chapter was longer than the others, so I hope it was good! The chapters should be getting longer from here on. Reviews?

I also want to thank everyone who has reviewed so far! Thanks, guys! And I want to thank The White Raven013 for the Dancer suggestion! Demyx didn't get his Dancers to actually clean the training room, but he was lazy and used one to find Roxas. Go Demyx. ;) His character is growing on me a bit day by day.

I'm aiming for a ZexionxOC here...I hope I'm doing okay on getting there!