Riku and the Missing Half-Year

Tidus' water sword clashed with The Way to Dawn. Riku slid his Keyblade up the blade and caught it in the hook. He swung it over his head, tearing it out of Tidus' grasp. It sailed through the air and stuck fast in the sand behind them. It was mid-morning now and both boys were sweating from their swordfight. There was a bleeding rip in the right leg of Tidus' overalls where Riku had cut him and Riku's left shoulder was still feeling the sting from being hooked by Tidus' sword.

Riku stared at Tidus. He raised the Keyblade as if he were getting ready to battle again but he knew it was over. Tidus's gaze darted between Riku and his sword.

"I've disarmed you. This fight is over," Riku declared.

"Not if I can get it back!"

Tidus dashed to the left to get to his sword. Riku was just as fast (and he'd expected something like this too). He tripped Tidus over. The blond fell face first in the sand. Just as he lifted his head up to spit out the grains Riku stabbed the Keyblade into the sand right in front of his face. He froze.

"It's over," Riku reiterated, putting a heavy foot on Tidus' back to drive that point home. He smirked. "I win."

Tidus groaned and let his face fall back into the sand.

"Hey! Guys!"

Riku looked up immediately at the sound of the feminine voice. He'd thought for a second that it was Kairi (because he briefly forgot that he knew any other girls) but when he looked he saw Selphie waving at him from the other side of the beach. She jogged over to them with a smile as sunny as the shade of yellow she was wearing. Riku let Tidus go so that the blond could get up. Selphie giggled at the sight of both of them and slipped her hand into the large pocket on the front of her dress to procure two potions.

"Aw, thanks Selph'! You're a life saver!" Tidus said, taking one of the potions and tossing it back with one gulp. The rip in his flesh glowed with the instantaneous magic as it sealed the wound shut. Riku glanced at his shoulder. In the heat of the fight he hadn't bothered to take notice of it too much but now he could see that it was a nasty jagged wound that was bleeding heavily. He took the second potion and downed it.

Selphie giggled and her grin almost reached her ears. "You're totally welcome. You boys are up really early today. I was saving those potions until later since I knew someone would inevitably get hurt in battle or something but I didn't expect it so soon. What's the wager this time? Is it money? Are you two insulting each other again?" All of a sudden she gasped dramatically and covered her mouth with both hands. A sly look crept into her eyes and her voice was muffled by her hands when she said: "Is it a girl?"

Riku rolled his eyes. "No. The wager is secret."

Selphie turned her full attention to Riku and suddenly that sunny-faced demeanour became subdued. "Yeah, that was silly of me to suggest it. You've only been back for a day, right? I saw Kairi yesterday and she told me that you and Sora were back. Where have you been?"

Riku gulped but tried not to visibly flinch. He could tell by her tone that that question was directed solely at him. He tried to change the subject. "It's a long story. And why are you here this early? I've never known you to be a morning bird."

Selphie nodded her head in the direction of the sea line. "I came because of the tide. It's gone low so I wanted to see if I could find some neat stuff before it came back in and everything got washed away. But you didn't answer my question. Where did you go? Kairi was pretty upset, you know."

Riku looked at the sand and nodded. "I know."

"Did you at least tell her where you've been?"

Riku nodded again. Selphie returned the nod sternly. She looked like she was proud of him and he beat down the urge to roll his eyes at that. Kairi knew a lot more about where he'd been than Selphie could ever imagine and she thought that Kairi was ignorant.

"It's good that you did that, at least," Selphie said. "It was terrible seeing her so depressed like that for a whole year. Will you tell us anything about where you went? Even a teeny bit?"

Riku frowned at her, eyebrows furrowed. Something about what Selphie had just said didn't sit right with him. She cocked her head to the side expectantly as he continued to say nothing.

Suddenly, Tidus blew a loud raspberry. "Of course Riku isn't going to tell us. It's always a big guessing game with him. Hey, maybe we can get Sora to tell us where they went when the storm hit."

Riku's glare snapped from Selphie to Tidus instantly. "What are you talking about?"

Selphie sighed and leaned her head on her hand, resting her elbow in her other hand. "Tidus, you over exaggerate everything. That 'big, dark storm' you keep going on about was really just torrential rain."

"Seriously, Selph', I don't think you and me are thinking about the same storm," Tidus said.

"Whatever," Selphie said, rolling her eyes. "You're just being dramatic."

"No, really! It was that big!"

"It was not!"

Riku turned to look at the horizon disinterestedly as Tidus and Selphie bickered. He figured he would just wait until they both realised they were being stupid but something else still didn't feel right. It was nagging him like an itch under the skin that made his hair prickle. Something that the two of them had said… what was it? Riku glanced back over to the two of them. Selphie was nagging Tidus about a "poor memory", which he huffily protested as he picked up his sword. That's right, Riku had wagered a question on his battle with Tidus. Where had the sword come from? There was no way he could have possibly gotten it from the islands.

The conversation had changed. Riku could tell because the tones of his friends' voices had changed. He didn't bother to tune in, he didn't really want to. Selphie and Tidus (Wakka too) only ever had idle, boring things to talk about. Or at least, that's the way Riku had always seen it. Their lack of ambitions as big as his meant that he didn't really get along with them as children and they had been sceptical of his plan to travel to other worlds on a raft (although in retrospect, that was probably a good thing). They were friends with Sora, mainly. Other than that, Riku had no reason to pay any attention to them. Wakka was unremarkable in all respects. Tidus was a typically arrogant sporting child who excelled at a made-up game and nothing else. Selphie was an airy girl with a head full of made-up stories and not much else. He had never bothered with any of those three before because they had never been on his radar for anything. In a way it felt odd to be interested with any one of them.

In the end, Riku thought that he might as well claim his prize before Tidus went and forgot about it. He approached the two of them and as he did their conversation became clearer, even though he wasn't really listening.

"Do you really think you have to hold your breath for that long?" Selphie asked.

"Totally! The way we set it up, right, the field isn't really all that big but you'll be swimming in swirls and circles a lot. We did some tests and we figured you could quickly swim up to a kilometre without even realising it. And you can't take a breath until the ball is out of play. So, yeah. I've gotta be able to hold my breath all the way to this island. Ha! When I got here this morning Riku couldn't believe that I was that good at it. He even thought I was lying. Haha! You should have seen his face, Selph'!"

"I'm not all that surprised. I wouldn't believe you could do it if I hadn't seen you training at it so hard all year."

"Yeah right! I'm sure Riku's just jealous that I can finally beat him in something. Ain't that right, Riku?" Tidus turned to Riku and grinned. "Can't handle a little change of tide?"

"You haven't been around for a year and a half."

Riku stared at him wide-eyed. A terrible chill ran through his core at the same time as something else bubbled up hotly. He lunged forward on impulse and grabbed Tidus by the collar of his shirt roughly, lifting him off his feet. "Why?" Riku growled.

"Riku? Stop!" Selphie exclaimed.

"Whoa! Dude, chill," Tidus said, dropping his sword and showing his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, really! Didn't mean to hit a really sore spot."

"No, I mean…" Riku took a deep breath. He set Tidus back down on the sand but didn't let go. "Selphie, you should leave."

"What? No! Not when you're getting like this all of a sudden," Selphie argued, running up and trying to get between them but Riku refused to move. "Let him go."

"Only when he answers the wager."

"The wager?" Tidus echoed.

"You said you'd answer any question if I won the battle."

"Oh yeah. What, do you wanna know why I'm so good at holding my breath?"

"No. I was going to ask about the sword but I think this is a better question: why did you think I was gone for a year and a half?"

Selphie sighed. "Riku, Tidus is terrible at anything he needs his memory for. He probably just lost track of time. Everyone knows you were gone for only a year."

Except that Riku knew he'd been gone longer than a year and he knew the reason why the Islanders wouldn't remember. Tidus glanced over to Selphie unsurely. That was all Riku needed to see. "I think he meant what he said. Where did the extra six months come from?"

Tidus gulped. "I think that's technically a different question…"

"You know what I'm asking. Why did you think I was gone for an extra half-year?"

"Riku, stop it!" Selphie shouted. She slapped him in the face hard enough to turn his head. The clap resounded across the beach as sharp as the sting on Riku's cheek. He let go of Tidus and the blond stumbled out of Riku's reach. "Why are you so mad? Tidus is just being stupid like he always is."

"I'm not being stupid!" Tidus said indignantly.

Riku slowly turned his head back to look at Selphie. His face was frozen in wide-eyed, slack-jawed bewilderment. Selphie glared at him defiantly with her arms akimbo.

"Are you back to your senses now?" she asked with a snap. Riku blinked and looked down at the sand. He nodded. Her sighing made him look at her again. Selphie crossed her arms and her eyebrows slanted down in a more doleful expression. "Really, can't you talk to us about where you were for the past year? It seems like it was pretty bad."

"Yeah… yeah, it was," Riku admitted before turning on his heel to go back to the other side of the island. He didn't turn to look or bother to wait for Tidus and Selphie's response.