A/N: What chapter is this again? I fear I may be going mad! Woops, too late... Now lemme see, here... uhh... It is Chapter, um... 10! That's right, 10! Phew, I though I forgot for a minute there... So, yeah, Chapter 10. Yeah... No disclaimers. Not that I ever had any. Or did I? I'm in perverted air-head mode right now, please leave a message after the tone. ((beep))

Chapter 10 (A/N: Are we sure about that...?)

A few nights later, Kage, a.k.a "Mizu," was standing on the edge of the pier in nothing but her night shirt and a light robe, just staring at the stars. (A/N: I don't know why. Just because, I guess...) She was lightly fingering the shell that Riku gave her, which she always wore. Riku walked up behind her, not trying to be stealthy at all, and whispered in her ear.

"Mizu!" he said, not at all loudly. But apparently, Mizu hadn't noticed him walking up behind her and was unprepared for him. She gasped audibly, spun around, and her foot accidentally fell off the edge of the pier, and she shrieked, and fell in. Riku's first thought was "Oh, crap!" as he dived in after her. The water was ice-cold seeing as it was the middle of the night. Riku grabbed her and pulled her onto land, all the while thinking "Deja-vu." Fortunately, Mizu was still conscious this time and managed to help him with the getting to land part. She had swallowed a lot of water, however, her mouth being open in that shriek when she went in, so Riku started rubbing her back as hard as he could to try to get all the water out. Mizu coughed it up, then coughed a few more times, trying to get it all out. She then took several deep breaths, managed to say "Remind me never to do that again," then passed out. (A/N: This girl passes out a lot.)

Riku picked her up and carried her to the doctor.

"Sorry to bother you so late, but I scared her off the pier," Riku said when the doctor opened the door, looking like he just got woken up from a sound sleep. And he probably had, but he didn't seem to mind. He just stood there, rubbed his eyes, and yawned.

"She's gonna be in here a lot, isn't she?" the doctor asked groggily, then yawned again. "Alright, bring her in."

Riku nodded and took Mizu to the bed she had been in the first time he'd fished her out of the ocean, and gently laid her down.

"So," the doctor said, "what happened?" Riku told the doctor what had transpired at the pier as the doctor proceeded to strip Mizu down, causing Riku to turn a brilliant shade of red and look away while still reciting what had happened. "Oh, I see," the doctor said as he got Mizu into some dry night clothes. "Well, she should be fine. Let's just hope she doesn't catch a fever."

Later...

"Oh, the oxymoron we call life!" the doctor bellows as Riku sponges sweat from Mizu's forehead. "She would come down with a fever after I said that, wouldn't she? I have to learn to keep my mouth shut. Next thing you know, she'll get worse!"

"Don't say that," Riku said, still sponging. "Let's just hope she gets better. Do you have anything that could help?"

The doctor thought for a minute, then said "No." Riku's hopes sank a little lower at that. "If a certain plant had grown healthier this year, I would probably have something, but I couldn't afford to harvest any of it. It's a fairly rare plant. And we can't use anything else on her, it might be too strong and I don't know what she is and isn't allergic to. Neither does she, for that matter. Just try to keep the fever down, it'll burn itself out eventually. I'll see if I can find anything that will help." The doctor then left, muttering something about "inventories" under his breath. Riku just kept on sponging away the sweat.

Mizu groaned and shifted, and her breathing rate increased slightly. Her muscles tensed a bit, then relaxed, and she started breathing normally. Riku thought it was rather odd that she would do that, but the doctor was off checking his supplies and couldn't answer questions at the moment.

This went on for what seemed like hours, and nothing they did seemed to help any. Actually, it didn't last all that long, but with how worried the two were, time dragged on longer than it was supposed to.

"I'm going to bed, Riku," the doctor said, getting up and stretching. "You should, too. Maybe she'll be better in the morning. But it won't do us any good sticking around here."

"No, I think I'll stay. This is partially my fault, so I should at least see her through this."

The doctor shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said, then left.

Riku eventually fell asleep, his head resting on his arms which were crossed and resting on the table by the bed. He slept lightly, and kept waking up at every little noise, which was mostly Mizu's tossing and turning. Mizu shifted one final time, then sat bolt-upright, and uttered a quiet shout of "No!" She started panting slightly, as if she had had a minor workout, and was drenched in a cold sweat.

Riku lifted his head up, barely noticing that something was wrong. "Huh? Oh, hey, are you feeling better?" Upon waking up further, Riku noticed the slightly shaken look on her face, and realized something was up. "Hey, what's wrong?"

The moonlight coming in from the window played lightly across her features, creating odd lights and shadows on her face, making her look more beautiful than normal, which Riku immediately mentally kicked himself for thinking. He saw her expression clearly. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth was slightly open in shock or surprise or something.

Mizu put her hand to her forehead, pressing lightly as if she had a headache, and stared off at nothing. "It was just a dream..." she whispered, as if to herself. She then rested her elbow on her up-raised knee, and shut her eyes tightly. "Just a dream..."

Riku moved to sit next to her on the bed, and took her unoccupied hand in his. "You want to tell me about it?" Mizu nodded, and swung her legs around so she could sit closer to Riku, then put her head on his shoulder. He gently slipped his arm around her shoulders.

"It was all... so familiar. But I don't know where I was. And there were other people there. Five others. We were just... enjoying the day. The sun was shining, and the temperature was warm with a light breeze. Then this... this thing, it just... I don't know how to describe it. It was like it rose up out of the ground or something. And the place I was at started to... fall apart, I guess you could say... I don't know exactly how to describe it, but the land started breaking up and pieces floated away and disappeared, so it didn't look the same. It started to look... evil, somehow..." Mizu swallowed and continued on. "Anyway, that thing that came out of the ground, it was huge, and black. It called these... other things from a black portal of some kind in the ground wherever it slammed its fist down. We tried attacking it, hoping to drive it away somehow, but we didn't even so much as scratch it! Then something happened. I can't even begin to describe it. But it was like being pulled into a black abyss, and we were... falling, I guess. One of the guys I was with grabbed hold of me, and held on to me protectively. He said..." Mizu had to swallow the lump in her throat again. "He said that as long as we were together, nothing would keep us apart. Then one of the others, a guy with brown hair and a scar across his face, called my name and that of the man that had me in his arms, and told us to grab his hand. The others were holding onto each other and the guy. I tried to grab his hand, but I couldn't reach it. I heard myself calling his name, and felt tears running down my face. I was so scared. The guy that had grabbed hold of me shouted that we would find each other again, then held me tighter. Then, everything went black. I found myself somewhere else, somewhere far from where I had been. I think it was another world. I looked everywhere but couldn't find the others, or the guy that had tried to protect me. I started to panic, then I woke up. I think it was just a dream... but it was so real... And was so familiar..."

Riku finally said something to her. "Dreams are like that, sometimes. They can seem real and familiar, but they are still just dreams. I think the fever gave you a nightmare, that's all."

"Fever? I was sick?"

"Yeah."

Mizu thought on this a moment, then spoke up again. "But it was so real. And I was so much younger in it... I think I was only about six years old... Part of me wants it to be a memory, but another part of me doesn't."

Riku considered the age difference in the dream and reality, and decided that it could have been a memory. "If it was a memory, then you were separated from your home about eight years ago."

Mizu nodded. "I think I was also separated from my family. That guy that had a hold of me kept calling me 'shisuta,' which means 'little sister.' But I don't remember any names. Not even mine..."

"Well, whatever it was, it's over now," Riku told her, plainly thinking that would offer her some comfort. Yet it seemed to have the opposite desired affect, as Mizu started crying right then. Riku held her protectively in both arms, and started gently rocking back and forth like a parent comforting a frightened child. He stroked her hair back from her face as she sobbed into his shoulder.

About that time the sun was up, and so were Sora and Kairi, who had decided to go wake Mizu up then go get Riku so they could do something that day. Sora quietly opened the door, after knocking and hearing Mizu's sobs, and poked his head in to see what was going on. Riku ignored him. Then Kairi poked her head in, and started to say something, when Sora quietly shut the door and whispered "Let's leave them alone." Kairi apparently wanted questions answered, and tried to open the door again, but Sora kept it firmly shut and shook his head, saying without words that they shouldn't bother Riku and Mizu. Riku kept on ignoring them.

Eventually, Mizu fell asleep again, so Riku gently laid her back down in the bed and covered her up with a light sheet, then bent over to kiss her forehead. He didn't even realize he'd kissed her until he had shut the door and still felt her soft skin under his lips...

A/N: Okay, I am SO grossing myself out here!

Teek: You ain't the only one getting grossed out here, Twerp.

Me: I'm going romantic and it's disturbing me to no end, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Teek: ((sweat drops)) Oi vei, Bobbi, you really gotta cut down on the Sunkist.

Me: Oh, sure, blame the orange soda!

Teek: I just did!

Mizu: At least Trunks didn't pour another 20 oz. Pepsi down my throat again...

Trunks: That was funny.

Me: Yeah, Mizu, only you could get drunk off of Pepsi!

Mizu: Oh shut up!

Bloopers

Scene: Riku carrying Mizu to doc's

Riku: Sorry to bother you so late, but I scared her off the dock...
Doctor: What was she doing on me?
Director: CUT! Riku, you were supposed to say 'pier,' and Doc, no hentai.
Doctor: Aw, damn...