Runaway

It's been what seems forever. It's still kind of early, I guess, it's just so quiet out. My legs are aching and I'm tired of walking, the pain from my bruises don't hurt all that much, but I feel like I'm going to pass out. Riku is dead quiet. He doesn't talk to me, I can hardly hear his footsteps when he walks, and he NEVER gets tired!

"So..." I say, trying to sound as friendly as humanly possible "Riku, are you getting tired? Shouldn't we stop for a little while?"

He keeps walking. Didn't he hear me?

"We've hardly traveled." he says "We should go further, then we'll rest."

How much longer is FURTHER?
I sigh loudly.

It had to have been at LEAST an hour. He finally says we can rest and I collapse on the ground.

"So," I say. "Riku, where are we?"

"We're still in the area of that alley, really close, that's why we need to move fast." He replies.

"You're kidding... how LONG has it been?"

"Not very long."

I moan. I didn't know running away was going to be so tiring.

Riku goes and sits down against a wall, not real close to me. I sit up and scoot close to him and he doesn't seem to care at all.

"Erm...Riku..." I have a feeling I shouldn't talk to him at all but we can't travel together without communicating. "Were are you headed to?" He looks at me, making me feel uncomfortable, his eyes are so much colder than ice.

"I'm not headed anywhere." He replies. "I'll go where I want. When I find a nice place, maybe I'll stay there."

"If you don't know where you're going, why were you giving me a hard time about me not knowing were I'm going?" My sentence is all jumbled up. Why is Riku making me so nervous?

"I'm experienced...unlike YOU I know what I'm doing." He cringes then, as if he knows he said something wrong. "Let's go." He stands up and walks away and I follow close behind.

"Riku!" How could I forget? "Thanks for saving me earlier!" He avoids looking at me and says it was nothing. Shivers run down my spine. Why is he making me feel weird like this?

We finally reach a small town, a few houses and stores, not much at all.

"Keep a low profile. Don't talk to the people here or make eye contact." Riku finally says something!

"Why?" I ask.

"You'll find out."

I sigh again. Why does he have to be so mysterious? I don't even know if he likes me or anything...he would've ditched me by now if he didn't like me though, right? Eh...

"Riku," I ask "What do you mean by 'experience?'" He stops dead in his tracks. I made a BIG MISTAKE now. He turns to look at me, unsure of what to say, I guess...

"I hated my home...I ran away when I was thirteen...almost fourteen."

"What was wrong with it Riku?" Damn it! I shouldn't of asked that...

"Nothing, nevermind..."

"...You can tell me. You can tell me anything! But if you don't want to that's okay..."

"I don't."

I'm trying not to sound hurt at all when I say that it's "okay." What's his problem anyway? He doesn't have to be like...like what?

"You're lagging behind again!" Riku calls to me, I begin to feel warm again and run to his side. "You're just like every other kid who tries to run away."

"What are you talking about?" I ask, "Every kid gets to travel with a sexy gorgeous stranger?" DAMN! Why did I say that! Bad Sora! STUPID SORA!

He doesn't say anything. I think I really caught him off guard. Oh no. He turns back to look at me, now I'm blushing like a moron, and he's staring at me like I'm diseased.

"You think you know what you're doing," He says. His voice is soothing, he never seems to loose his cool. "...but you don't. You need to rely on others and have no clue what there are consequences of your every action."

"Like what?"

"Like...who have you told?"

"About what?" Does he always have to be vague? It's annoying.

"About running away."

"I didn't tell anyone!"

"Does anyone know that you've run away?"

"Well..." I start "There was this one guy bought a map from...before that gang came, but I didn't tell him I ran away or anything." He nods.

A few more hours pass by, neither one of us speaking. In the distance I hear sirens going off, Riku grabs my arm and runs behind a closed restaurant.

"What was that for?" I ask loudly. He remains silent and doesn't move at all. His hand is still on my arm and his body is pressed against mine pinning me to a wall, actually it feels good...NO! I can't think that way... Shoot, my hormones are just running wild...that's it.

"You know when you run away people notice you're gone?" He asks coldly. "They send police to look for you. It's amazing how far they travel sometimes."

Oh...shoot, why didn't I think of that?

"It looks like they weren't here for you, though." Thank God!

"I'm surprised that there aren't more police cars yet." I was spacing out and almost missed him talking to me. "Do your parents come home right after work?"

"Just my mom," I explain "I don't know where my dad is, I'm trying to find him. It will probably be days before my mom notices I'm gone. She doesn't care about me." He nods again.

A few more minutes pass before we start walking again.

"So, your mom doesn't care about you?" He asks, not a bit of worry in his voice.

"No," I reply "She yells at me a lot and says I'm worthless."

"I see." He doesn't sound interested at all.

"So... why did you run away that long ago? Why didn't you like your home?" Another awkward silence. I just HAD to ask!

Still silence. I feel awful about asking that, now.

"...I don't want to talk about it." He says quietly.

"I understand." I say just as quietly.

A few more hours in silence pass as we walk side by side, avoiding looking at each other. It seemsso weird now.

In the next chapter:

Sora and Riku get caught!

Riku tells Sora about his past!

The kiss scene! (Maybe.)

Crazy killer squirrels with rabies! (Not really)