Kairi slipped the slim silver frames over her nose. Glasses. Ugh. Why did she have to have reading glasses?
"What story are we going to read today, Mommy?" Nadia asked impatiently.
"I don't know. You pick one out, honey," her mother replied, lazily scanning the bookshelf. Each book she had near half-memorized after reading it so many times. Nadia loved a good story.
Nadia began to hum happily as she brought her thick child's fingers back and forth across the rows. Kairi, meanwhile, stole a quick look at herself in the study's mirror.
I look so old in these things. Why did my near sight have to go bad? I'm barely twenty-four for crying out loud…
"This one, Mommy?"
"Didn't we read that one two nights ago?"
"Oh. Right…"
Kairi secretly turned back to the glass. Why was it always mirrors, anyway? Looking at yourself…did that mean you were vain? Or, instead…unsure of what you really were?
I don't like how I look right now. I look…like a grandma.
Kairi was usually pretty calm about her looks. She didn't dress too fancy or too casual. She had her hair brushed straight and her face clean, but didn't bother with any makeup—except lipstick on special occasions. Today, for instance. Sora was home today. She was wearing lipstick today.
And grandma glasses, she added, feeling old.
"This one, Mommy?"
"Wow, we haven't looked at that one in a while. C'mon, let's get started."
Nadia clutched the book to her chest, her eyes turning into little crescents and her mouth opening up into a grin. She jumped up and down before skipping to the big rocking chair in the corner. It sat under a lamp, which Kairi lit.
"Want to start from the beginning?"
"Mm-hmm!" Nadia climbed into her mother's lap.
It was the afternoon of the same day, the day after Sora came home. The storm was still raging outside (hence the lamp). Kairi was very much looking forward to the next sunny day, when Nadia and all her pent-up energy could be released into the open. She was also getting tired of coming up with absurdly bland topics to talk about with Sora and Riku, since the real matters at hand couldn't (and wouldn't) be discussed.
Sora's eyes always followed Nadia curiously, and Riku's always stayed on the floor. Kairi just couldn't mention how bad the storm was or what did everyone think of breakfast or anything like that one more time without going insane.
No matter. After lunch, the adults had gone their separate ways. Sora, novel haircut and all, was still tired from his ordeal and was back in bed. Riku had clutched his head in pain and retired, claiming it was "nothing really."
I'll look in on him later, Kairi promised herself.
With the two men in their rooms, Kairi was left to take care of Nadia.
"Mommy, are you ready?"
"Oh, right. Sorry." Kairi cleared her throat before opening the heavy book to the title page.
"The Prince and the Three Foxes…"
"Very good, Nadia," Kairi said. "Your reading gets better every day."
The girl smiled her crescent-eyed smile. "I can't read as good as you, Mommy."
"As well. But thank you."
"As well."
"Okay. Here we go." Kairi turned the page. "'There once lived three fox brothers, all clever and all mischievous. The older brother was tired of living in the dirty fox hole, so he devised a plan that would let his family live in the Royal Palace…'"
"Nadia? Nadia, are you awake?"
Kairi shook her daughter gently. Fast asleep. She slipped her silver glasses down her nose and looked at the big oak grandfather clock. It was half past four. She had been reading for over three hours.
The woman flipped back through the pages. She could remember Nadia getting excited when the foxes locked the prince in the dungeon, but no reactions after that. Kairi stuck a marker at that page, page 207, and shut the book. She would have to re-read the ending aloud later for Nadia's benefit.
Kairi managed to lift the child up and place her back in the chair, as she had done many times, without netting a peep from the girl. "Finish your nap, darling," she whispered, touching her painted lips to Nadia's cheek.
The house was eerily quiet. The rain splashed into the sea outside, but the sound was muted. She heard a sudden thumping upstairs and hurried to see what it was.
She came to the door of Riku's room. The door was slightly ajar, but the woman hesitated. She had not been inside for…six years. That long? It seemed like only yesterday they were still sharing a room…
The thumping came again and Kairi pushed in, forgetting her fears. She was startled by what she saw: Riku crouched on the floor by the bed, gripping his head with both hands. She could not see his face, but heard small murmurs—whimpers, even.
"Riku? Riku?" She was kneeling beside him, her fingers pressed lightly against his back.
He was breathing a little hard. He took his forehead and pounded it against the bare floor. Kairi realized what the thump thump was now.
"Riku—!" She grabbed at him, throwing both arms around his shoulders, and tried to pull him back.
"What's the matter? Riku, let me help you…"
"I'm fine," he groaned.
"You are not," she said in her most angry motherly tone. "Don't lie to me."
"I just have a bad headache…okay? Okay? Leave me alone."
"Do you want a glass of water?"
"Okay, sounds…great…" This he said between small groans of pain, which he tried to hide by smothering his face in his hands.
"I'll be right back," she told him, standing straight up and hurrying from the room. She went to their water barrel, which was running rather low. Damn. If the storm keeps up, we'll have to use the rainwater… Kairi didn't like to use anything but well water if she didn't have to. There was a large reservoir of fresh water beneath the island and she knew it to be the purest water in all the worlds.
Still, she filled a glass of the precious commodity for Riku and ran it up for him.
"It's nice and cold," she promised. "Have a sip."
"I'll have it in a minute… Thanks." He was still curled up in a fetal position, still pulling at his hair like he was trying to drag out some monster inside his head.
Kairi ran her hand along his arm, trying to be comforting. "Riku… You'll be fine."
"Yeah, I know," he breathed into his shirt (he was so crunched up on himself).
Kairi swiveled away from him a little, swinging out her knees so she wouldn't crowd him so much. She knew all about Riku's pride, and having someone see him like this was probably humiliating for him. Still… Didn't he understand she could help?
"Could you…shut the blinds? Close the…door?"
"You want it to be dark?"
"…Yeah…"
Kairi did as she asked and then insisted he sit up on the bed and have the water. He was reluctant, but finally obeyed. She sat next to him and didn't comment about how his face was all red and sweaty and still crunched up from cries of anguish.
"I feel a little better," he said more calmly, not gasping between every two or three words anymore.
Kairi smiled. "I'm glad."
~*~
"Is this the first time you've had a headache like this?"
Riku lied and said, "Yeah."
Kairi just studied his face, with concern written all over her own. He felt good to have her warmth so near, but humiliated to have shown her this side of himself he was trying to keep secret.
They were just…headaches.
It was very dark in the room with the windows and door sealed. Riku still had his eyes squinted slightly (he would have helped this if at all possible), so it was difficult for him to see.
Sitting here in his room with Kairi next to him… It used to happen all the time…
"Riku! Riku, where are you?" The girl's voice was filled with laughter as it echoed through the big empty house, the recently vacant house they had taken over together.
"What is it?" He looked up from his textbooks, ones he studied for fun since there was no organized education on a rural island, and eagerly awaited her arrival.
She rushed in the room, smiling her coy smile. "I'm glad I found you."
"Really?" He set the textbooks aside.
"I have something to give you…" She was so smart and smooth for a seventeen-year old, so crisp and beautiful… He could have looked at her forever.
"What is it?"
She sat down on the bed directly beside him. "Close your eyes."
He obeyed, grinning. He only smiled wider when he felt the warm, wet touch of her lips on his own. He kissed her back and heard her squeal happily. Her arms looped around his neck and they kissed for a long time.
When they had shared each other's breath long enough, they lay back on the bed together. Kairi leaned her back against his chest and grasped his hands over her belly. "I feel so safe when I'm with you," she whispered.
"You aren't scared about the baby anymore?"
Kairi shook her head and looked into his eyes. "As long as you're with me, I know everything will be all right."
"Don't worry, Kairi. I'll always be here to take care of you."
Riku made a promise to himself, then and there, that he would protect Kairi until the end of his days. She meant more to him than anything in the world.
"So…how is it?" Kairi's words brought him fuzzily back, soaring seven years forward. The present.
"How is what?"
"The headache?"
"Oh, right. It's getting a lot better."
"Want some more water? Or something to eat?"
"I'm good. Thanks though."
Kairi touched his arm gently. "I'm glad. I was really worried."
He thought a little white lie wasn't so bad, not if it made her look so relieved. The pain was ebbing… Just not "a lot." Any lie is worth that smile, he thought.
Kairi took her hand away and stood. She was a good two feet from him now. She wasn't close to him anymore. She wasn't at his side anymore.
"Hey, I see you're actually wearing your glasses," Riku said with a soft chuckle.
Kairi's eyes grew wide and she snatched the silver frames from her face.
"You're so sensitive about them. Why?"
"Every girl has her sore spot," Kairi replied indignantly, stuffing the reading glasses into a pocket on the front of her skirt. "And I have mine."
Riku withheld the comments about how she looked cute, or about she was even more adorable now, standing there fussing about glasses. Kairi usually didn't care about her appearance so much (not that she had to). This little 'flaw' of hers was…sweet.
But he didn't tell her.
"Nadia fell asleep when I was reading to her," Kairi was explaining. "I have to go wake her up and make dinner."
"Okay," Riku said, leaning back onto the bed. "I think I'll rest a bit more in the dark, if that's okay."
"Of course it is. Just concentrate on feeling better." She grabbed a quilt from the edge of the bed and pulled it over his legs.
Riku sat there and enjoyed her motherly affection, trying to forget it was habit for Kairi now. There was no genuine romantic love behind her actions anymore, not toward him anyway.
"This storm," sighed Kairi on her way out. "Just makes everyone sleepy!" She slipped out into the hall and closed the door.
Riku smiled, thinking of Kairi for a few more moments. Then he curled back up into a ball and clutched his head, whimpering in pain. It was all right, though. It was only nothing.
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I'm a liar. The worst liar in the world. I said I wouldn't be back until next week, but here I am. I was supposed to be doing a composition on A Tale of Two Cities and plenty of other work I'll be missing, but I did this instead. I couldn't help it. I feel miserable and all dizzy-like with some stupid virus and I can't concentrate on anything but this story. I'm such a miserable liar. _ Anyway, I made 2,000 words exactly (which I usually aim for for good chapter length, not too long or short). Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, this story is not going happy places, if you couldn't tell. I'm not the most elusive foreshadower in the world. I think all the sad stuff can be blamed on my almost exclusively listening to Gackt for the past few days. His music is pretty depressing… I'll probably be including one of his songs in the final chapter, so look out. Beth+Gackt lyrics=double trouble, boys and girls. Jaa.
