A/n: Disclaimer: I do not own Kh or any of its characters. Its Square-Enix's sandbox, I just play in it. The Minutians are also from Shaman King so they're copyrighted too.
Chapter 4
"I know because that noise is not usual, okay?" she answered. She drew her blade and readied it in her hands. Somehow she knew where to go. Turning left and walking into an unwelcoming, foreboding forest, she felt a cold shiver make its way down her spine. She spun around and watched Riku. He stared back at her.
"What-?" he asked when she suddenly swung at him. In front of his face, appeared a tall, thin heartless. The thing winced and began to attack Frost. She hit it off of her and destroyed it.
"That was the invisible, much stronger than outside the door," she said and her eyes darted across the forest back and forth, with the precision of a huntress.
"So you were outside the door once?" he asked and drew his blade, positioning his feet so he could spring at any time.
"At a time, yes," she said, pushing her glasses from the edge of her nose back up to her eyes. Riku stirred. He heard something. The bushes ruffling. In the corner of his eye he could see little tiny people walk out of the forest, dressed in what look like native clothes and each was holding a Lilly pad over his or her head. They were cute, but were they enemies? He noticed Frost put down her blade, and pick up one of the little guys.
"Are there anymore?" she asked. He shook his head and meeped.
"These are Minutians, Riku, they live here in the lake," Frost said and a little one pulled on Riku's flares. He bent down and picked it up, seeing that Frost was smiling at him. He let the little one touch one of his fingers with both its hands. He smiled and the Minutian spoke softly.
"I am Moki" she said.
"I'm Riku" he said and Moki smiled.
"Thank you for saving us, great Riku," she bowed.
"Oh no, I'm not great," Riku shook his head. The Minutians disagreed adamantly. While the Minutians and Riku were in a small argument, the Minutian Frost had picked up was speaking with her. His name was Haru.
"He seems to like you" Haru told Frost.
"No, no, we're just helping to get out of here," she said and shook her head.
"Every time he laughs I see him glance over at you," Haru said, Frost looked over and saw it too, "Why to leave? You are our savior."
"There are plenty of others that can help you, Haru," Frost stated.
"Maybe" he said quietly.
*~*~*
But, all happiness must come to an end at sometime, and now they were leaving. Riku had also discovered hat the Minutians could float and was having trouble leaving Moki behind. She kept following him as they left the forest. He bent down to her level, Frost waiting for him, but not really minding.
"Look, Moki, we have to go, we have lots of stuff to do," Riku said and put Moki in his hand. She hugged his thumb.
"But I wish to journey with you Riku," she pleaded and he looked up at Frost. He saw her nod.
"But what about your family?" he asked, unsurely. The nod had caught him off guard, he didn't want a tag-along.
"They have said it is time for me to find a spirit seer" she said.
"A spirit seer?" Riku asked Frost.
"A person who can see the spirits of Kingdom Hearts, he or she must have felt a lot of pain to see them," Frost indicated to Moki "Moki is a spirit."
"Oh" Riku grimaced. He was torn between hating another to take care of and making Frost happy. He hated this feeling he got when he was troubled. It was like drowning, struggling for air, your heart bursting.
"It's up to you Riku," Frost said, knowing very well of Riku's conundrum. She had once traveled with a Minutian. They were nice company and could fight for themselves but Riku didn't know this.
"Oh, I suppose," he said. Frost was mildly shocked by his answered. They both knew he had enough strength to tell Moki no, so why had he said yes? Moki floated up to Riku's eye level and hugged his nose. Frost smiled. What a sight. The toughest person to ever enter Kingdom Hearts and he was getting hugged on the nose by a tiny girl. How cute.
"Then it's settled," Frost said and turned away. Riku and Moki both followed her back to the house. They were to begin their journey at a later time of day.
*~*~*
Moki was resting on the couch and Riku had proceeded to raid the fridge for whatever was edible and didn't have a side effect. Frost leaned against the doorway to the kitchen.
"Why did you let her come?" Frost asked as Riku turned.
"I don't know, maybe she could help," Riku answered insecurely. He felt weird, holding plates of this and that balanced on his arms. Not that Frost hadn't taken notice; he had seen her reflection in the plastic ice box.
"Maybe she could help? So, you're not even sure?" Frost barraged him. He placed most of the plates on the table.
"I made a decision and now we can't change it, deal with it," he said bluntly, letting his normal side come through. He had only put on that nice act so he could impress her. If she wanted fire, she was gonna get fire. Frost weighed the facts in her mind. She could respond or not respond. She decided on the latter.
"You seem to finally be relaxing" she said and sat next to him on the couch. He placed one of the blue and green fruit he had picked out in his mouth.
"Yeah, take it as you want," he said.
"Finally some fighting spirit, you can't just go around being nice all the time if you wanna get outta here," she said. He grimaced. She must mean letting Moki travel with them.
"Ouch, I didn't know you were so bitchy," he said and popped another fruit in his mouth. She grabbed a piece and placed it in her mouth.
"Well, now we both know the truth, so I guess we both have to deal with it."
*~*~*