Crowned Hearts Chapter
Three
By Blue Dragon
Maybe he wouldn't be so miserable
after all. Perhaps he could try and work up the courage to ask this
new girl to that party that everyone was talking about. All of his
close friends seemed to have someone to go with, and for the first
time in his life he was the odd man out. But maybe this would be his
last.
"Do you like ice cream?" Riku asked.
"A
lot! Especially strawberry"
"Really? That's my
favorite, too!"
"We already have something in
common"
Riku felt the gears in his mind shifting to
positive as he studied this new development.
"There's a
stand somewhere here, wanna get some?"
"I'd love
to"
Riku and Lisa walked side by side towards the ice
cream stand by the dock overlooking the sea. The guy there was
reading his book, probably from slow business.
Lisa and Riku
changed to a slower pace as they walked on the sturdy wood of the
deck, slightly blackened by how brightly the sun had been glowing
lately.
"Hey, can I have two strawberry ice cream
cones?"
Riku asked the salesman.
"What? Two?
You must be pretty hungry"
Riku paid the four munny and
didn't ask for elaboration on the guy's comment as he went back to
reading his novel, which seemed like one of those cheesy romance
ones.
"Here you go"
Riku handed Lisa the
cone, which she began to consume with Riku as the two walked down the
side of the beach back the way they had came.
After a while,
with both the cone and the cream eaten, the two met an awkward
silence when they found no subjects to talk about.
"Are
you really comfortable in those clothes?"
"What?"
"Those
waders, jeans, yellow shirt, it seems kind of heavy seeing how hot it
is and the fact that its noon."
"I never thought
about that. I always wondered while I was sweating so hard all the
time"
Riku shed his yellow shirt revealing a thinner
white one, and also his waders. He pulled up his jeans slightly so he
could get some much-needed air into his ankles. He then folded his
clothes in a neat pile and laid them next to the seaside
shack.
"Thanks. I actually feel a lot more
comfortable."
"Don't mention it"
Riku
now noticed that his attire now somewhat matched his newfound
companion's, save the fact the she wore a thicker white shirt and tan
capris.
After a shorter silence, Riku asked a question that he
deeply regretted:
"Do you like fighting?"
"Have
you seen Riku lately?" asked Sora to Kairi as they, with
Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus sat at a table in the seaside pub near the
business area.
"He's probably at Chuckis' planning
another one of his sinister plots"
"That last one
wasn't so bad," mentioned Tidus.
"That's my dad
we're talking about! They almost put his bar out of business!"
"Mr.
Barzhad shouldn't be so dependant on that, not to mention his mascot
of a wife, either" Selphie continued.
"HEY! THOSE
ARE MY PARENTS!"
"Sorry Sora, no offense" she
apologized.
"By de way Sora, you and Riku destroyed us.
It seems like you've been doing a little workout of your own, huh?
What was it?" Wakka inquired.
"Nothing special, just
like you guys did. Just a few heartless here and there. How did you
guys get those weapons?"
"We went to this world
called Spira" started Tidus "and this guy named Sir Auron
gave it all to us. We got to practice all the time, because in this
other world called Gaia, we had to help this guy called Zidane fight
them all off."
"That's pretty much what Riku and I
did, except we met some mighty tough guys named Cloud and Leon (even
though his real name was Squall). They taught us a lot."
Sora
was hesitant to mention Riku's little position in the "Dark
Side". He didn't want to spoil his ranking with his friends,
especially since he had done all he could to say he was sorry. Riku
really was a good guy in the end. But something seemed to have been
up with him ever since the first few minutes after they came back to
Destiny Islands.
Sora also didn't want to try and complicate
things by mentioning too much about the detail of his adventures,
especially the gory details about all of the powerful enemies he had
defeated. And if there was one thing he would keep between himself,
Kairi and Riku, it would be the story about closing the Kingdom
Hearts all together. He wanted to keep things, well, simple and
clean.
Selphie looked over the sea, remembering all that it
now symbolized ever since the restoration of the beautiful
islands.
"Remember the 'Great Spirit'" she asked the
group.
"Isn't he that big bird spirit that's supposed to
watch over this island?" Kairi remembered.
"Yeah!
You think he helped us any? I mean in bringing back the island?"
"I
bet he did. And I bet Sora and Riku had something to do wid it"
Wakka added in his input.
"I should make a poem, just
about how he brought happiness to us"
"I don't think
there any poems that would fit that kind of greatness" Tidus
shifted his position in his wooden chair.
"How about
'amidst the blue skies, a link from past to future, the sheltering
wings of the protector'?"
".Selphie, if your going
to plagiarize, at least rephrase it" Sora muttered.
"I'm
not plagiarizing! I made that up!"
"You're lying.
That's off of something"
"I don't know what you're
talking about. If it is, then what's it from?"
"I
can't remember! But that is DEFINITELY off of something. You didn't
make that up"
"Whatever" Selphie said as a
flock of birds flew by.
"Actually, I do like fighting.
But I bet you can't guess my
weapon"
"Sword"
"No"
"Axe"
"No"
"Club"
"No"
"Spear"
"No"
"Nunchaku"
"No"
"Ball"
"No"
"Pole?!"
"NO"
"Katana,
wakizashi, knife, whip, pinwheel, gunblade, dagger, staff, firearms,
leather gloves, metal knuckles, large planes, your mother!?"
"No,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO, close, closer, heavens no, hell
no"
"What is it then?"
"My bare
hands"
She said, holding up her fists.
Riku paused
and cocked his head.
"No gloves or anything?"
"Nope.
And I'm fluent in all forms of martial arts, too."
"You're
kidding me! I can use at least three, and I doubt you'd be any match
for me"
"Care to try me?" she asked, taking a
kung fu position in the sand.
"Put up your dukes!"
The
two stood slowly circling each other.
"I bet I can make
you eat sand Riku. Just try to hit me"
"TAKE
THIS!"
Riku back flipped and tried to land his heel on
Lisa, but she put a hand up like she expected him to do it, and
flipped him eight times until he landed face-first on the sand, which
got mostly in his mouth.
"Ptuuii! Ptuuui!"
Riku
started spitting out sand all over the place.
"Nasty! I
went easy on you. Try to doge this!"
Riku spit out the
last of the sand and launched a sidekick. The sad thing was, Lisa
dodged that and Riku found himself lodged inside the side of the
shack, making a hole with his foot.
"Riku, you're going
to have to be faster than--"
She was cut off as Riku
launched a flurry of punches quicker than the eye could see.
She
dodged them seemingly effortlessly.
"Is there a breeze in
here?" she asked as she yawned.
Nothing works! I could
try kicking below the belt! Yeah and--oh yeah.CRAP!
Finally
Riku was exhausted and gave up.
"You're great."
"Thanks.
Its only because of you."
"Huh?"
"Nothing"
"Lisa,
who taught you to fight like that?"
"You could say
that you did, in a way"
"I don't understand"
Lisa
turned around and faced the water.
"You don't have to.
Let's just enjoy the time we have together"
Riku noticed
the yellow-orange sunset on the horizon, like the day he was going to
travel through the water to see what was out there. But now, though,
he knew. Just knowing that other worlds were there and not connected
comforted him at the time, and kept him from wondering any
more.
"Riku, its getting kind of late. I have to go now,
okay?"
"Alright. Can I see you here tomorrow
morning"
"Of course! I couldn't go through today and
not come back!"
"Good to know. Later!"
With
that she ran off into the sunset along the shore, her ponytail
bouncing. Riku watched her disappearing figure, then went to opposite
direction to his home.
Maybe I have a girlfriend.or not. How
do I know!? I bet Mr. Barzhad will, though!
Riku looked
towards his destination and ran to the bar "Fate" hoping to
get some love advice from the almighty Sora's dad.
