I really just have one thing to say… I LOVED writing Riku's mom in this chapter. LoL. You wanna talk about tough love!…

Anyway…enjoy!!…

WARNINGS: language…

Disclaimer: the characters and worlds of Kingdom Hearts belong to Square Enix and Disney…

Part Ten:
Mom…

When I woke up the afternoon after that phone call with Sora I couldn't have been more worried, even if I was trying. I was still trying to digest the fact that he had had feelings for me for years and panicking over the fact that he was going to be coming to the Islands. I was going to see him for the first time since I had kissed him that night in the bathtub.

I took a shower to calm my thoughts, letting the warm water running over my body sort my feelings out and put them back into order. Yet, while I was brushing my hair I remembered that he hadn't given me an exact day or time for when he was going to arrive and I started to panic all over again.

How was I supposed to be prepared for the confrontation if I didn't know when it was going to happen? As good as I had been with impromptu speeches in school, this was something completely different. There was no way in hell that I was going to be able to just pull some story out of my ass whenever I finally saw him again. I had to be prepared. I had to at least have an outline in my head of what I was going to say before the time finally came because I would freeze up if I didn't. If I didn't have a plan, I was going to look like an idiot.

Growling in frustration, I drew the brush through my hair one last time before throwing it down onto my dresser. It landed with a sickening crack that made me flinch. A shout from downstairs let me know that my mom had heard it as well, and soon enough, her footsteps started to echo up the staircase. I didn't even try to hide how I was feeling when she walked into my room, choosing the exact moment to collapse onto my bed and cover my eyes with an arm.

"Is everything okay, Sweetie?" she asked, and I felt the bed sink slightly as she sat down beside me. "What was that loud noise?"

"I threw my brush," I muttered sadly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Even though I couldn't see her face, I knew that Mom was frowning, and when she frowned things were never good. One has to understand that my mother only frowns for three reasons. Reason number one is, of course, because she is feeling a tremendous amount of sadness or another overwhelming emotion. This frown is very subtle and usually accompanied by tears. Reason number two is because she's with me and knows that something is bothering me but doesn't know what to do to make it better. This particular frown is recognized easiest by the way she furrows her brow along with the frown, usually while staring at my back.

Reason number three, however, is the worst frown of all. She only frowns this frown whenever she's coming up with a brilliant plan. This frown in particular is quite possibly one of the trickiest frowns ever frowned, mainly because it disguises itself as a smile to trick the frownee (a.k.a. the person receiving the frown). Only someone who knows my mother as well as I do can tell the difference between one of her small smiles and one of her "I'm coming up with a plan that will probably screw with your entire life, but I really don't care" frowns.

After an eternity of silence, she sighed and I let out a breath that I hadn't even realized I had been holding. Thank the gods above that it wasn't one of her "I'm coming up with a plan…" frowns, but one of her "I know that you're hurting but I don't know what to do to make it better" frowns.

Letting out my own heavy sigh, I let my arm fall away from my eyes as Mom started to rub my elbow tenderly. There was so much that I wanted to tell her, but I wouldn't be able to bear it if one more person called me an idiot. I knew that I was an idiot, so why did everyone think that they needed to repeat the fact constantly. Especially Roxas. Only the gods knew how many times he had called me an idiot the night before.

"Something's bothering you," Mom stated, and I nodded. "It must be something important for you to be so worked up. I'm guessing that it's something about Sora?"

Her small sigh when I flinched at the mention of Sora's name made me groan and roll onto my side so I was facing away from her. I didn't want her to see the pain on my face or the complete absence of emotion in my eyes. She had already spent enough of her life worrying about my well-being.

"Sweetie, I know that you probably don't want to share any of your problems with your dear old mother, but I want you to know that I'm here for you. Okay?"

I sighed and rolled back onto my back, keeping my eyes glued to my ceiling. "Sora broke off the wedding because of something I did," I muttered.

"Oh, Riku. Don't blame yourself. I doubt it was your fault that he called it off. It was probably because he finally realized how Kairi really was."

I shook my head. "No. He called off the wedding because of the real reason why I came back." I sighed and glanced at Mom out of the corner of my eye to see that she was watching me intently. "I kissed him, and then I left. And he called off the wedding."

Silence filled my room for a while, but then there was a sickening crack that made me shout and grab my arm in pain. She had punched me. My own mother had punched me as hard as she possibly could, which was pretty damned hard seeing that she had done martial arts since she was a teenager.

"You're an idiot!" she shouted.

"So I've been told," I grumbled, moving my hand to check for marks. There was sure to be a bruise there in a few minutes.

"You kissed him and then you left?"

"That's what I said."

She punched me again. "You're an idiot!"

"There are some mothers out there who go to jail for abusing their children," I muttered, rubbing the new spot on my arm gingerly.

"Yeah? And there are some mothers out there who let their children be idiots and rot alone for the rest of all eternity."

"Just leave me alone," I groaned and covered my head with my pillow.

"No!" she shouted and pulled the pillow out of my hands. "I won't leave you alone because I know that you'll do something even more idiotic once Sora gets here, and you'll scare the poor boy away forever."

"It's my problem!"

"And you're my son!"

"Wh-wh…." I sat up and threw my arms into the air. "That doesn't mean that it's your problem."

"No, you're right. But since you're my son that makes you my problem, and I have to make sure that you don't completely screw up your entire life when you deal with your own problems."

I groaned and ran a hand through my hair, pulling at the strands in aggravation. "You make absolutely no sense."

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Yeah, and you make all the sense in the world."

"Shut up."

She snorted and patted my shoulder gently. "Yeah, yeah. I know. I love you too."

Silence filled the room once again as we each took the time to calm our raging emotions. There wasn't a word to describe how I felt. Even though I was aggravated with my mother, I wasn't angry with her. I knew that she was only being a mom and had given herself over to her maternal instincts. I rubbed my arm again where she had punched me. It didn't mean that she had to abuse me, though.

"What are you going to do?" she muttered after a while.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I'll think about it when the time comes."

She sighed. "You're sure he's coming?" I nodded. "Did he say when?"

"No," I sighed. "He just said that he's going to come here because I refuse to go there."

"That's it?" I nodded and she sighed. "You boys are going to send me and Miranda to an early grave."

I snorted. "You two have been saying that since me and Sora first met."

She shrugged. "It's the truth. We can't deny our motherly instincts. I swear. Miranda was ready to hop onto the nearest plane so she could strangle her son when she found out that he had proposed to Kairi."

"How did you manage to make her change her mind?" I said with a laugh, even though I already knew the answer. Once Sora's mom got riled up over something, there was only one way to calm her down.

"Isaac slipped a crushed up Lortab into her drink when she wasn't paying attention." The innocent smile on her face while she spoke made me laugh even harder.

"Nice."

She shrugged. "Hey. You gotta do what you gotta do. That woman would have torn poor, little Sora limb from limb once she got her hands on him."

"Yeah."

Silence, then: "You're not going to run again, you know? I won't let you."

I sighed. "I wasn't even thinking about running away this time, Mom. Even though I'm terrified that he called off the wedding and that he's coming here to be with me, I'm not going to let myself run away."

She frowned prettily and cocked her head to the side. "What made you change your mind about running away this time?"

I shrugged. "If I ran away then I know that I probably will rot away in loneliness for the rest of eternity. Sora feels the same way as I do. I'm just going to have to get used to not having to hide my feelings from him all the time, I guess."

"You know," she said, "he's going to have to do the same thing. You're not the only one who has been hiding your feelings for years."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know."

"Do you really?"

I glared at her in response to the question, but her answering glare made me sigh in defeat. There was no way to win against this woman, not unless you were ready to sacrifice everything you had. Even then, there wasn't a definite chance that you would win.

"Yes, Mom. I know."

She smiled and patted me softly on the arm. "Good. It's nice to know that my little Riku has grown away from being so self-centered all the time."

I didn't even try to glare at her then. I just snorted and rolled my eyes, flopping back down onto my bed. "Could you leave me alone now?" I muttered. "I need some time to think."

She laughed and I didn't think that she was going to go, but then her weight was removed from my bed and I heard her footsteps move across the floor.

"I'll call you when dinner's ready," was the last thing I heard before the door clicked closed behind her.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and curled up into a tight ball. Why did mothers have to be so damned insightful? And why did my mother have to enjoy prying into my life so much? It was almost like she took joy out of tormenting me until I broke and told her whatever she wanted to know.

"Damned sadist," I muttered under my breath as I grabbed my cell phone from my bedside table.

Almost resentfully, I jabbed the third number on my speed dial and waited as patiently as I could until Naminé answered on the fourth ring.

"What happened?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, hello to you too, Nam," I muttered sarcastically.

"Ha ha, Riku. Now seriously, what happened? What did he say? What did you say? When are you leaving?"

"What we said is none of your business, but I'm not leaving." I sighed again. "He's the one who's coming here."

She gasped and I heard her muttering something to someone I could only guess to be Roxas. The other three hadn't seemed too keen on hearing about my screwed up love life with Sora.

"When?" I heard Roxas ask.

"I…don't know. All he said was that he was coming here before he hung up."

"Dammit!"

"Tell me about it," I said with a quiet laugh that tapered off into a yawn. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm gonna take a nap before dinner is ready."

Namine sighed. "Okay, well… Don't hesitate to come see us tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah."

She laughed. "Alright. We'll talk to you later."

"Mm-hm. Bye." I didn't wait for her response for I snapped my phone closed and returned it to its place on the table.

When I woke up later on that evening, my arm had a terrible kink from where it had been resting on the edge of the table.

TBC…
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A/N: Yeah…this chapter was super short, but it gave me the chance to develop Riku's mom a little bit. Not much plot movement, but yeah… There really won't be much until Sora gets there…

Also…I've decided that there are only going to be five more chapters, if that. It all depends on whether or not I'm satisfied with a scene earlier than chapter 15 and want to end there…::shrugs::…

Anyway…thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. I know that I haven't gotten back to you guys yet with the review replies, and I just wanted you all to know that I appreciated every one of them. I'll try to get back to most of them over the weekend, but I dunno. I already know that I'm going to spend all day Saturday isolated in my bedroom, reading Deathly Hallows, so yeah… LoL…

Until next chapter, adieu…