Author's Notes: Another short chapter. These things are all probably going to be short until we hit the major bridges again. Like I said: things are taking a little bit of downtime for a while. I guess we're not completely deprived of tension, as this chapter will prove, but there's definitely a lot less than there was in a couple of the previous chapters.

I'm trying to get as much of this story done before I go on vacation to Cancun on the sixteenth this month, because I don't know if I'll have Internet connection. If I happen to not have any, I'll be on a one-week hiatus. I know, that'll probably suck, so I'm going to try and give you guys as much food for thought before leaving you on a cliffie. It's not my fault I decided to go with my parents on a wicked-awesome vacation to a place where the waters are actually BLUE, it's just that...well...it's CANCUN!

Enjoy the chapter, anyhow. Thanks for your support!

Chapter 17

"Open Air"

"Thank you for helping with the dishes, Riku."

"No problem, Mrs. Tilmitt." Riku handed her another clean plate. "I don't mind at all."

"You know, you're not so bad," Lisa said with a smile. This didn't, of course, stop her from scolding Sora when Riku first came here, and she'd had half a mind to tell Riku to go back home. But when Sora and Tidus explained to her it was for a project, at first that became her reason for letting him stay. But now she was starting to wonder where the violent Riku had gone. She liked this one much better. Even Selphie had completely forgotten about when he had slapped her brother so hard that he bruised, and by now Tidus was almost completely healed.

"I try," Riku said with a shrug. Lisa smiled.

"Well, you keep on trying, honey, you're doing a great job!"

Riku smiled at her, and if Lisa were younger and not married, she would swoon. What a handsome smile! Who ever knew it was there when he was always scowling?

"I think I'm going to go rejoin my friends now. They're probably having fun without me."

Lisa laughed. "So go jump in!" she encouraged. Riku nodded.

"Yeah, I think I will." He scaled up the stairs, and indeed, Sora and Tidus were having a pillow fight. Riku smiled as he shut the door behind him, Sora laughing as he held his hands up to block Tidus' thumping him on the head with his pillow.

"Hey, what are you two doing, having a pillow fight without me? Some friends."

"You volunteered for the dishes, I just took advantage of it!" Sora laughed, rolling over onto his stomach. "Careful, Tidus is lethal with the down-feather ones!"

"Fluffy White Pillow of Doom!" Tidus declared, fluffing the thing in his arms.

"So what are we going to do now, since I missed the pillow fight?" Riku asked. Tidus and Sora looked at each other, then at Riku, grinning.

"How about..."

Then Holiday by Green Day began jingling out of Tidus' backpack in the corner of Sora's room. Sora and Riku both looked at it, and Tidus hopped up.

"Got it! It's just my cell phone." He looked over at them. "Um, you guys don't mind if I take this, right?"

"Don't take forever like Sora did!" Sora rotated his eyes around and shot Riku a withering glare for that, his bottom lip puffed out in what had become his little trademark pout. Tidus flipped open his cell.

"Speak!"

"We have a problem."

Tidus didn't react physically to this, other than starting to walk out of the room. "What do you mean, a problem?"

"The buzzard won't leave the nest."

"What?"

"Ansem's cooped up in his house!"

"Okay, okay, okay." Tidus turned a corner, missing the frown Riku sent him. "But you got a few days off his schedule, right? You've been faking this since Thursday last week."

"I got Thursday, Friday, and that's it. And I think he's getting really antsy, Tidus. He almost caught me lookin' out my window a couple of times."

"I'm not surprised," Tidus said, dropping his voice to a murmur as he slowly prowled the halls back and forth. "Riku's gone a while without going back. He probably misses his favorite little toy."

"Riku is not a toy!"

"But Ansem thinks he is," Tidus whispered. "Okay...here's the plan..." and Tidus went on to explain to Roxas how they would go through with this. From the beginning, Tidus had considered a third man for the job, and that was mostly why he set the stage for a bond to forge between Riku and Sora. If they could get Sora to help with this, it would be cakewalk. Tidus explained how they would have to wait until a Friday, since their chances would be highest then—Ansem was gone during the day the longest. They would break in through Riku's room, wait until both Riku and Ansem were gone, then they would search the house for evidence. If all went well, they would have the whole day to tear the place apart if they had to and come back out unscathed with perfect proof. It was very sketchy, but Tidus assured Roxas that if they did it right, it would work, even if it was during broad daylight.

"This is more like flying by the seats of our pants," Roxas remarked. "It's not much of a plan. And how the hell are we gonna stay home on Friday?"

"Edea's going to leave early in the morning for work at the office, around seven." Tidus said. "You could sleep over at my place. As far as your parents know, we'll have happily been driven to school."

"I'm going to murder you if my grades drop."

"Oh, quit your bitching," groaned Tidus, "Anyway, we can probably find a ladder and circle around the backs of the houses to the side window in Riku's room..."

"What about my room?"

Tidus whirled around and paled, eyes wide. Roxas said something to him on the phone, but he slapped it shut in his hand and didn't hear it.

Riku had his arms crossed, giving him a firm glare. Clearly, he was none too happy about what he'd heard. Wait...what had he heard? Tidus gulped.

"H-How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough." Riku growled. "You're not going anywhere near my house. Got it?"

Tidus just stared blankly at Riku, frozen. Fuck, that wasn't part of the plan!

Riku yanked the blond up close to him, his hands grasping Tidus' shoulders. "Tidus," he hissed, his voice low. It was barely even a whisper. "If you go in there, I swear to God, I will make you go home with missing teeth. Do you got that straight?"

"But—" Riku shook him.

"No! No 'but's! You have no idea what's in that house, Tidus!"

Tidus was blond, but he sure as hell wasn't stupid. And if Riku was going to start treating him like he was, well, he was in for a surprise. He narrowed his eyes at the teen squeezing his arms.

"Do you think you're trying to protect me from it? Whatever's in that house that I don't know about?"

Riku blinked. His grip loosened. He hadn't been expecting that.

"Riku," Tidus murmured, "It's obvious that Ansem is doing something to yo—"

SLAP.

Riku hadn't slapped Tidus all that hard (not as hard as he had Sora, anyway), but the blond's left cheek still turned red as Riku's eyes turned hard and cold.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" he snapped. "Stay out of there, you hear? If I find out you were snooping around, I'll scalp you!"

"Riku!" Sora shot his head out from inside the doorway, glaring at them both. "What the fuck are you doing?" he hissed. "You were just starting to win my Mom over! Straighten up before she yells at all three of us!" He looked fleetingly at Selphie's bedroom door. "God, we're lucky my tattle-tale of a sister didn't see that! Christ!"

Tidus just rubbed his stinging cheek and walked back into Sora's room, and Riku followed after, eyes shut as he took deep breaths. The phone rang again the minute he was about to put it away. Tidus felt Riku's eyes burning laser holes into his back as he flipped it open, and murmured into it, "Call me later." And hung up.

For the rest of the night, he acted like he had dropped the whole plan, and eventually Riku's mood picked up again. But truth be told, Tidus didn't give up that easily. He was going to find proof of Riku's abuse, and he was going to do it with or without Riku's support. He didn't feel at all guilty for taking advantage of Riku's trust—this was a special exception. Besides, it was for Riku's benefit in the immediate future. If this worked, on Friday this week, Leon would have enough evidence to pull Riku out of Ansem's house and put him in a real family. That, Tidus figured, was all that mattered at the moment.