Rhapsodyinjunee: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it! Yes, I love their friendship so much. Thanks for leaving a review!

Enamis09: I wondered what had happened to you that week that you forgot to send your review! I thought maybe you were on vacation or something. :) Yes, I have finished KH3, so yes, that moment did relate to the epilogue. That's all I'll say, though! And yes, I felt like Luxord would be the most reasonable/sympathetic of the Organization members I had to choose from. I'm very curious to see where they're going to take his character, after the hints they dropped in KH3.

Haha well 18 is still plenty young, so I'm sure you will find that perfect guy at the right time! I got my first ever boyfriend at 19, and I married him! :)

BlissfulNightRain: I'm glad you've been enjoying these. I love the Sora and Riku bromance, too! It's too bad I haven't been able to focus more on it in this set of stories, just because of the nature of the plot, but I've been working on another story off and on that is all about the two of them. And it's in third person, too! :) Thanks for the compliments on that, by the way. Anyway, I did already have one request for bonding moments between Sora and Meli, so we'll get to see a little more of their time traveling together next week.

Coolmegan123: I loved the last line, too, haha. Glad you liked it! Thank you for the compliments!

A/N: Guess what? I finished the second draft of Inferno's Edge! Or, in the case of some chapters, the third draft, plus more edits on top of that. So right now, I'm forcing myself to keep some distance from it for as long as I can stand (even though I've already pulled it back out twice to change some things I thought of while lying in bed or showering or whatever). Then I'll go back and read the whole thing again, to make sure it's ready. I go back and forth constantly from thinking that it's really good to thinking that I haven't done very well expressing what I'm trying to, so fingers crossed that this read-through goes well.

I've got a poll for you guys...when this thing is ready, should I go back to updating twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, or keep this same schedule of just updating on Wednesdays? It's 47 chapters long (yep, if you happen to be keeping up, we went up one chapter on the second draft), so twice a week would put it ending in late January, while once a week would last all the way to next July. The second way seems a bit long to me, but I'd like to hear what you guys think!

This request is from Angie-ange! They asked for the first kiss scene from Riku's perspective. I'm gonna be honest, I suffered from some writer's block on this chapter, so I hope it turned out at least halfway decent. It certainly wasn't because of the request itself, so don't blame yourself! I ended up last minute writing it (I've had all the others written at least a week ahead of time, but I kept putting this one off because I was working so much on the sequel), and I was rather tired, and I've decided that pure romantic fluff really isn't my forte haha. I can do silly, teasing fluff, and I can do angsty fluff, but I feel like when I try to go the romantic route it gets corny. So, my apologies if parts of this are corny, but I think at least the fun and angsty parts turned out alright.

Chapter 23 Remix

(Runs parallel to chapter 23)

Riku's perspective

It had been so long, so long since Sora had gone into that stupid pod. Each and every day that passed was, in my mind, a failure on my part to save him, to do what needed to be done so that he could wake up and just be his happy, normal self again. I missed him. Back on the Islands, I had always had both Sora and Kairi around, shining their light on my darkness. The moment that I had set off on my own was the moment my troubles had begun in earnest, and now all I craved was a little of that light back in my life.

Speaking of which...the sound of the back door of the mansion opening reached my ears, and I turned my face toward the approaching footsteps. "Good morning."

Meli yawned long and loudly, almost as if it was intentionally over-exaggerated. "Good morning."

I found myself smiling despite my morose thoughts of only a moment before. Meli tended to have that affect on me, and I still wasn't quite sure how I felt about it. All I knew was that, though her light might not be quite as bright as my other friends', it was just as warm and inviting, and I was drawn to her in a way that I had never been drawn to anyone before. She was just so...perfect. From the way she spoke when she was sleepy – like right now – to the way she could keep up an argument even when there was nothing left to argue about, to the way her skin felt so soft and smooth against mine whenever we happened to touch during training. On more than one occasion I had been tempted to just reach out and grab one of her tiny little hands, to hold it the way I had when she had been injured by the Heartless. Lately, though, I had also caught myself thinking about taking it a few steps further than that – like maybe even kissing her.

I could feel the heat creep into my cheeks just from the thought, and I busied myself with standing so that my hair would hide my face until it passed. "I thought now that you had coffee, you were supposed to be more alert in the mornings." The scent of the strong brew wafted from her.

"I said I would be less grumpy, not that I would be ready to go with the sunrise. Er...not that there is a sunrise, but...you know what I mean." She yawned again. "Besides, I haven't quite finished it yet."

"Well, why don't you do that, and start warming up, too. That should help wake you up. I wouldn't want to take advantage of your sleepiness when we spar."

"Oh, uh-huh, sure you wouldn't." She slurped the hot coffee. "Because you definitely don't enjoy beating me every single time."

I smirked. "Of course I like winning. But in this case, since I'm training you, the real win would be for you to beat me." She snort-laughed, but didn't respond. "It'll happen one of these days," I assured her.

"Yeah, okay." I could sense her walking toward me, but didn't expect the playful punch to my arm as she passed. My skin tingled at the touch, even through my coat.

A few minutes later, we were ready to begin our sparring match. I held back, watching the vague shadow that was Meli through my blindfold, ears alert for the sound of her movements, waiting for her to make the first move. She did, eventually, but only after taking her time positioning herself and deciding the best course of action. When we had first started out, she always wanted to dive straight into every fight right away, so this was a definite improvement.

I blocked her first swing over my right shoulder. Another came in toward my legs, and I jumped back to avoid it, surprising her with a blow to the side from the blunt edge of my sword. She stumbled, and I took the opportunity to cast Blizzard. Her leap out of the way was messy, landing her on her back in the dirt, but she was able to cast Dark Firaga, which had quickly become her favorite spell, right back at me. By the time I had blocked the incoming flames, she was on her feet again.

More ice erupted from the tip of Soul Eater, but suddenly Meli's shadow vanished out of the line of fire. I could no longer see her, but could feel the darkness coming straight at me and knew she was at full speed. My sword came up in front of my face just in time, but I was not expecting how much force she would be using coming straight out of that darkness-fueled run. Before I knew it, my feet were being swiped out from underneath me, and I landed flat on the ground. One of the spear tips of her Keyblade poked into my chest.

"Do you surrender?"

It took a few seconds before my brain fully registered the fact that she had just won the match. When it finally did, I couldn't keep a huge, goofy grin off of my face. "I've never been so proud to be beaten in my life. Congratulations, Meli!"

She huffed incredulously as she retracted her Keyblade. "I did it! I finally beat you!"

"I knew you could do it." She had come so far in such a short amount of time, considering she had never had any kind of combat experience before. It hadn't taken me long to realize that she was a quick learner, and I had been expecting this day for a while now. My chest was nearly bursting with pride.

"I didn't," she laughed. "I honestly wasn't sure this day would ever come."

Her self-doubt had been her biggest obstacle all along, but I wasn't about to launch into another lecture about that right now. "Well, that just means that you need to have more faith in yourself," was all I said, reaching up to take the hand that she had offered to me.

She helped me to my feet, and only then did I realize that we were holding hands, just like I had wanted. My heart stuttered, then flew into overdrive. I should have let go. I should have backed away a step or two, instead of continuing to stand so incredibly close to her. Maybe it was the emotional high that I was on from getting to see her succeed, but I didn't want to do either of those things. Her nearness was intoxicating. She smelled like coffee and sweat, of course, but also of her lilac shampoo, and somehow the combination was just...Meli, and I wanted to just keep breathing it in.

I leaned down closer to her, almost unable to stop myself. "I really am proud of you, Meli. You've come so far." It was nearly a whisper. If I had spoken any louder, my voice probably would have cracked and betrayed how I was feeling at that moment. It was so foreign to me, this want. There had been crushes in school, sure, but this was completely different. I would never have dreamed of being any kind of forward with any of those girls. But right now she was the tide, pulling me in, and I didn't even care if I drowned.

Her shallow, panting breaths stopped suddenly, as if caught in her throat. She was flustered, I could tell, but she didn't try to pull her hand away or step back, and it gave me hope. Maybe she felt the same way about me that I did about her. Maybe she was just waiting for me to make the first move. My face began to heat up again. Could I? Should I?

"Thanks," she whispered finally.

Her breath brushed across my lips, and I could stand it no longer. With a burst of courage, I bridged the gap between us and kissed her. At first she stiffened, and I almost yanked back, but just as quickly she relaxed, her lips parting slightly to mesh with mine. It may not have been my first kiss, but it was the first one I truly wanted to remember, the first one that wasn't completely awkward, the first one that was really just perfect, like her. I used the hand that wasn't holding hers to cup the back of her head, pulling her in even closer.

Then she grunted, jerked, and nearly fell back away from me. I reluctantly let her slide out of my grasp, heart still pounding, and watched her press the back of her hand to her lips with something wild in her eyes. "What...what was that?"

My heart sank, and the guilt and shame that I had feared started to take over. "I'm sorry, I've wanted to do that for a really long time now, but...I shouldn't have just sprung it on you with no warning." I rubbed the back of my neck, kicking myself inwardly for giving in to my desires like that.

"Why did you do that?" Every clearly overwhelmed word out of her mouth was like another punch to the gut. "Why would you...why would you do that?"

I sucked in a breath, trying to steady myself and garner the courage to speak the truth. "Because I care about you, Meli." There, I'd said it. I was probably stupid for feeling that way, but at least now she knew. "Maybe you hadn't realized it before..." I had kinda thought that the way I was constantly losing my cool around her would have given her a hint, but I shouldn't have assumed. "I'm terrible at sharing my feelings, so I tend to try to keep things like that hidden, I guess." Until I lose all of my resolve and do something idiotic like kiss you. "But I've felt...an attraction to you, ever since you first got here, and that has only grown the more I've gotten to know you."

The only sound for a long time was her heavy breathing. I clenched my fingers into fists, waiting, still stupidly hoping, but each passing second confirmed what I should have realized all along. "Should I...assume that you don't feel the same way?" Of course you should assume, Riku. Obviously she's only seen you as a friend this whole time, and now you've probably ruined that.

"I don't know," she finally spoke again, her voice merely a mumble. "It's not that I don't...I really don't know what I feel. It's just...I can't." She drew in a shaky breath. "I'm so sorry, but I can't."

She sounded so upset that my pity for myself was immediately replaced with concern for her. The tremble in her voice took me back to the night Aiden had attacked her. "You can't what?" I stepped closer to her, wanting to hold her again, but knowing that I shouldn't.

"I can't...care about anyone." She was on the verge of tears, and understanding started to come over me. "Not just you. Anyone. I can't, because the last time I cared about somebody..."

"Yeah. I know." Now I did reach out, feeling that she needed the comfort, but restrained myself to only touching her arms.

"That's the only relationship I've ever been in, so to me, being in a relationship means being controlled, and caged, and...and hurt, and I just..."

"You're not ready." I was back to beating myself up again, because I should have known, I should have realized that she wouldn't be ready for anyone to make a move on her when she had just gotten out of such a terrible relationship. I had let my feelings for her cloud all of my judgment, and I hated myself for it. "I understand. You need time to heal."

"I honestly don't know if I'm ever going to be ready. It might at least take me a really long time." Her sobbing tore at my heart, but one small ray of hope poked its way through my despair. She hadn't completely turned me down. If she had not felt any kind of attraction to me at all, she could have just told me that. Everything she had said indicated that there was a chance she could return my feelings, someday. So maybe, just maybe...

"I'll wait." I gently tipped her chin up toward me with one finger. Even though I couldn't see her tear-streaked face, I wanted her to see the honesty in mine. "Meli, you are the one bright spot in my dreary, dark world. Before you showed up in the basement that day, I had nothing left to live for except a promise to protect Sora. Now I have you, to look forward to seeing every morning, and to bring actual joy and laughter back into my life. It's not just that, though – you're more than just a friend. I..." Swallowing back my emotions, I forced myself to continue, knowing that I had to somehow let her know how much she really meant to me. "Like I said, I'm terrible at talking about my feelings, but...no one has ever made me feel the way that I do when I'm with you."

My introverted side was screaming by now from the amount of torture I was putting it through, but I had to ignore it for just a little bit longer. There was more that needed to be said. "I will never, ever hurt you, Meli. I promise you that. Hurting you is the last thing in the universe that I would ever want to do. Do you know how much it killed me, seeing you hurting that night after he...?" I swallowed hard. "I think that was actually the first time I realized just how much I cared about you. But I understand your need to heal, and I will wait for as long as it takes. When you're ready, and if you want to..." Which, of course, was still a really big if. "I'll show you what being in a relationship is really supposed to be like. Okay?"

I held my breath as I waited for her to respond, hoping I hadn't said too much. "Okay," she whispered after a moment. "I have no idea why you would care so much about somebody like me, but...thank you, for understanding."

"Of course." I suddenly remembered what had started all of this, back before I had ruined it all with my impulsiveness. Now I really needed to find a way to lighten the mood, to try to get her back to that happiness she had lost. "So, um...you want to get some ice cream or something? To celebrate your big win? You deserve it."

She laughed a little through her tears, and my heart skipped a beat. "Oh, yeah. I had almost forgotten. I did win, didn't I?"

I smiled. "Yeah, you did."

"Okay. Ice cream sounds pretty good."

The tension in my shoulders eased just a bit. Maybe I hadn't completely decimated our friendship, after all. "Good. Let's go, then."

Please let me know what you thought in a review, and if you have any special requests, shoot them my way! Ideas for scenes can be as vague or specific as you want. I'll try my best to do whatever I receive!