Title: Countertops and Heroes
Wordcount: 453
Pairing: Riku/Yuffie
Rating: K
Notes: Drabble. Yuffie and Riku have some miscellaneous fun in the kitchen, because everyone knows Yuffie can make a game from everything.
Countertops and Heroes
She bounces on the balls of her feet, heels hitting the tile every other beat, hovering nearby. It's annoying him - the slap of sole on ceramic, the cramped, squashed kitchen, everything in the room. Especially how he's been employed to do the dishes.
Well, he reminds himself, he and Yuffie are supposed to be cleaning tonight's dishes.
Yuffie, instead, is standing on the counter, bouncing, head almost brushing the ceiling, ruffling through the cupboards. She's organizing all the chipped cups and dishes - sorting them by colour and height, for some reason unbeknownst to him.
"Come down here and dry the dishes," he says, and she turns, knocking a plate from its shelf. With quick reflexes, he reaches out to catch it, but her even quicker ones let her snatch it up first, dropping to a squat and snagging it between two yellow-gloved fingers. He feels stupid - leaning over and waiting to grab a plate that she is already shoving back into the cupboard.
"Make me," she grins, nudging him in the shoulder with one foot.
He sees a bit of Sora in her, maybe. The cheerful grin, the carefree attitude. Only things don't slide right over her head, and she can be a total pain in the ass when she doesn't get her way. Clumsy yet nimble, smart and selfish.
He grabs her ankle, tugging loosely, so she shuffles his way on her other foot.
"He-ey," she says, and when he refuses to let go, she does the next best thing - leap onto him.
Riku steps back as she tumbles in his direction, letting go of her on impulse and catching her by the forearms, and winds up on the floor as the world momentarily spins. His leg is at a funny angle - if he hadn't been so heavily trained in fighting, perhaps it wouldn't have been so painless - and her arm is squashed across his neck, her knee lodged against his abdomen, and his nose against her ear.
She climbs off of him and pulls him up, and says, "Oh, my hero!" in an all-too insincere way, and proceeds to throw her arms around his neck and snuggle against him. Both feet off the ground as she bends her knees, Yuffie grins as he slumps over trying to support her weight.
"You're insane," he comments, bending until she's kneeling on the ground, and reaches to push her off.
"Not as much as you!"
Riku sighs, but can't help but smile and slip his arms around her and admit, cheek against hers, "Yes, I am insane."
