Dark Empathy
A Kingdom Hearts Fan-Fiction

Average Read Time: 20 mins

Chapter Four

The smell of smoke swirled around, and flowed into his mouth filling his lungs. It had done this for a while now. But it was only up until now that he smelt it. It triggered a twitch in his throat, and Ryne sat up with a cough. He looked across the room to see Riku sitting on the ledge of his window. He had one knee brought up, and the other was dangling outside of the window. His back was leaning against one side of the wooden frame of the window. The aquamarine orbs peered past the bluish-white locks that hung in front of his gaze. The light of the morning sun hit the other on an angle, causing oranges hues and shadows to spread across his profile.
Ryne realized then that he was staring at his brother with his mouth opened. He shut it, but found he didn't try to look away quickly enough for Riku not to notice.

"Finally up, I see." His voice came cool, and crisp after having blown some of the smoke out of his mouth. His head tilted down from where it leaned against the frame. His eyes locked with Ryne's before they had time to escape his gaze. There was something lingering in his eyes. Something Ryne couldn't quite place. It was unnerving.

"Yeah." He finally mustered out when he saw that Riku wasn't going to look away until he answered him.

Riku's stare continued to lock itself on Ryne though. He still had that look in his eyes. And being dead silent didn't really help the matter for Ryne either.

Ryne cleared his throat some, and broke off from the stare having let his eyes shift off to the side. "So. Breakfast ready?"

The intense blue of Riku's eyes moved away finally, and wandered outside and off into the horizon where the sun continued to rise. He raised the cigarette delicately to his lips and took a long drag of it. He let the smoke fills his lungs momentarily, before he let it flow out of his mouth. "I didn't make any."

Ryne stared at him in mild shock. He hadn't made any breakfast? To a normal family, that would have been no big deal. But for the entire time he'd been living with his brother he had always made breakfast before he got up. It was so abnormal to Ryne. Perhaps he hadn't heard him right. "You didn't make any?" He repeated, just to make sure.

"That's right." His brother answered calmly. He flicked some of the ash off of his cigarette out the window between his thumb and index finger.

Ryne's gaze held some confusion, but he supposed it wasn't such a big deal. "Well, are you going to make any?"

"No." The answer came direct, but had lost some of its tranquil quality.

Ryne's brows furrowed and he looked at him with some irritability. His face softened however when he realized it was stupid to get all worked up over something as simple as breakfast. Just for some reason it frustrated him, knowing that something was up, and he wasn't being told what. Or was it he who wasn't telling Riku something, and was frustrated with himself because he couldn't tell the other?

He quickly dissolved those thoughts before he could continue them any further. His eyes had found the boxers lying on the floor. The ones he'd taken off that night, when Riku had told him he didn't want to sleep with him when he was wet. They looked dry now. His eyes moved upwards a bit and he looked at Riku again. His gaze was still locked outside from where he sat. Ryne looked back down at the boxers, and leaned over the edge of the bed to pick them up from the ground. He moved his body to sit at the edge of the bed and he pulled the boxers over him in haste.

Once Ryne had arisen, he made sure to spare a glance over at Riku to make sure he hadn't noticed. But he was looking dead at him now. Ryne's face flushed, and he turned away, avoiding his gaze. This was beginning to become really strange. "I'll go and make my own breakfast then." He muttered softly, and moved across the room and towards the door. He let his hand move towards the doorknob and turn it, but only found it to be locked. He frowned, and tugged on it again. It was still locked. How was that possible from the inside of his room? And why?
Ryne's body stiffened, before he looked back and over at Riku. He was still watching him. Ryne swallowed a bit, and looked back to the doorknob, then back to Riku again. "Why… is your door locked?"

"To keep you from getting out." Riku's voice came a bit intimidating from where he was. He had flicked the butt of the cigarette out the window, and was now starting to move from the ledge and onto the ground. Ryne flinched when he saw that he was starting to make his way towards him. Riku stopped infront of the him, and stared his brother down.

Ryne shied away some, and further towards the door. "To keep me from getting out?" It clicked in then, and he looked at him startled now. "Wait, what? Why are you locking me up in here!"

"I just told you." Riku muttered some, as he continued to watch him.

"Yeah, but why?" He persisted.

"So you'll be safe, dear brother." Riku answered, and he moved around Ryne and towards the locked door. He pulled out a key, and stuck it in the lock. He unlocked the door and rested a hand upon the knob.
Dear brother? What the hell was that about? He certainly was being cocky this morning.

"Safe from what?" Ryne stared at him angrily now. He looked to the key that Riku had pulled from his pocket. His eyes narrowed in puzzlement. "And since when did you have a lock on the inside of your door?"

"Xemnas." He said the name with mild disgust, but smiled for some reason after he had said the name. He then opened the door and stepped half way out. "And since last night. I did it while you were sleeping." He answered. "There's one on the outside of it too. And only one key." Riku held up the key between two fingers, and waved it.

Ryne growled, and leapt for the key in Riku's hand, only to land against Riku's body in failure. Riku held it up in the air, and out of Ryne's reach. A crude smirk crept up his face before he shoved Ryne away and back into his room.

Ryne staggered back some and tripped, landing onto the ground. He sat there glaring at Riku. "You asshole!" He shouted at him.

"I know." Riku replied and started out of the room closing the door firmly behind him. The sound of the lock was heard from the outside of the room, before Riku's voice sounded again. "And don't even think of jumping out the window either. I've got a little friend hanging out around at the bottom to come get me if he sees you try and leave." That was the last thing Riku had said to him before he moved across the hall and downstairs. There was some scuffling and rummaging in the kitchen for a few moments as well. The front door shutting was the last sound Ryne heard before the house fell quiet.

Ryne stood up, and peered at the door in fury. "Riku!" He made his way towards it, and began to tug on the doorknob violently. "Riku let me out!" He called aimlessly into the silence. It seemed like forever that he was calling Riku's name hopelessly, as he still had tried to open the door in dismay. Eventually Ryne had given up, and moved towards the bed to sit on the edge. "Jerk." He muttered to himself, before his eyes had rested on the open window. He watched the curtains blow gently in the early morning breeze. He shivered a bit once the breeze had hit him from where he was. Days in Destiny City were always warm. Why was it so cold today? He stood up, and started for the window out of curiosity. He wanted to see who was down below waiting for him.

Ryne placed his hands upon the sill and carefully stuck his head out to look below him.

At a first glance there didn't seem to be anything there. However at a second look, there seemed to be a white little figure moving across the grass at the side of the house. An antenna protruded from its head with a small red ball attached to it. It bounced up and down while it moved from shrub to shrub. It was almost like it was trying to camouflage itself. The little creature soon stopped, and moved it's tiny head to look up at the window. "Kupo!" The creature cried and ducked into the bushes. Obviously it hadn't wanted to be seen.

Ryne's eyebrow twitched some, and he wasn't exactly sure whether to laugh, or shake his head in condemnation. "A moogle." He pulled his head back in and moved away from the window. "He can't be serious." Ryne muttered to himself. He made his way over towards Riku's dresser now. He was getting cold. And he thought it best to just grab one of Riku's sweaters instead of shutting the window. He needed some fresh air today, if he was going to be cooped up all day. He opened the drawer where Riku kept some of his shirts and rummaged around for one of the hoodies inside. He finally found a plain black one and pulled it out. As he did so, a small piece of paper floated to the ground infront of him. His gaze turned downwards at the paper. He bent down and picked it up. It wasn't a piece of paper. It was a photo.

Ryne peered at the photo closely. It was of him and his brother at the beach together. They were on the beach blanket sitting side by side together. Riku was actually smiling in this picture with him. He flipped the picture over to read a small note on the back in blue ink. Saturday Afternoon – Ryne and I at the beach. He remembered this photo now. Kairi had taken this picture about a couple months ago. He smiled to himself a bit before he laid the photo back inside Riku's dresser. "I wonder why he keeps that in there." He said to himself, as he pulled the hoodie over his head. He shut the drawer while fixing his hair back into place from having gotten messed up by the material pulled over his head.

Moving back over towards the bed, he sat back down and let out a heavy sigh. Ryne looked around for something to do. He had no idea when Riku was going to get home to let him out. And he was stiff bored. He grumbled to himself and he flopped back down onto the bed. He stared at the ceiling in annoyance, and then looked down again. His eyes caught sight of a very peculiar looking book protruding from the other books that were stacked in Riku's bookshelf by his bedside. He got off of the bed and made his way towards it. His hand reached out to grab the book, and once he pulled it back he realized it was a scrapbook. He ran a hand over the front cover. His fingers gently moved across the front of it, before he opened it. Inside were photos; hundreds of them. And below each picture, there was a small comment to be found. Much like the one he had pulled from Riku's drawer.

Some of the photo's held Kairi and Sora in them. Others were scenery's from other worlds. And there were some even of him. His gaze shifted away from the scrapbook momentarily to look back at the shelf again. He hadn't noticed before, but all of the books looked exactly like the one he held in his hands now. Ryne reached out and grabbed another book, before opening this one as well. It also had photo's similar to the first. They were scrapbooks. They were all scrapbooks.

He knelt back down to the ground again, and started to shift through them carefully. He never knew about these before. Riku never told him about all of these photo's he had. There were just so many. He couldn't believe Riku had put these all in scrapbooks.

Ryne had spent the rest of the day looking through all of the photos that Riku had in the scrapbooks. He never looked to the clock once to check the time. He was so indulged in them, he hadn't even spared to glance and see what time of day it was. Ryne was currently on the second last scrapbook that Riku had on his shelf. He was just finishing turning the last page when he stopped to look at the last photo. It was of him sleeping. Ryne stared at it carefully. Riku had taken a picture of him sleeping?

Ryne continued to look at it thought, before he plucked the photo from the protective laminated sheet. His eyes moved over to the scrapbook momentarily to look at what the comment below the picture was to read. There was nothing there though. It was the only picture without a description. Ryne frowned some. Why had Riku taken a picture of him while he was asleep? It didn't make sense. Just as his thoughts were swirling around in confusion, a small snap and rustle of the bushes outside caught his attention. He looked up and out towards the window. He was surprised to see that it was pitch black. He didn't even stop to notice the change in light as the sun died down and the moon rose high. He must have been looking through the photos by moonlight now.

Ryne set the photo and the picture down, before he stood up and made his way over towards the window. He stopped infront of it, and glanced outside into the darkness. He looked down at the bushes then, only to find nothing. He scratched his head a bit before making his way back towards the books. It was probably that moogle. He had been ignoring everything around him for so long, his senses were most likely more acute now. He sat back down on the ground, and put the picture back in its laminated slip. He shut the scrapbook, and set it back on the shelf. His fingers moved to grab the last book, but he stopped in mid motion when he heard another snap. His gaze turned to look at the window again. That moogle was starting to make him uneasy now. He let his hand drop away from the shelf, and he stood up again moving over to the window for a second time.

Ryne leaned his body out of the window to look down below and into the bushes. "You can stop trying to hide yourself now." He called out to the moogle. "I'm not going anywhere." He added, before he waited to see what the moogle would do. There came no sound or movement from the bushes. Ryne leaned back again and continued to watch below for a few more seconds until he turned around to move back to the bookshelf once more. He only made it half way across the room when he heard another sound. It was a thud. And it wasn't coming from outside anymore.

Ryne spun around, and looked around the room carefully. He swallowed a lump in his throat and wrapped his arms around himself slightly. A cold breeze had started to pick up again. His eyes wavered over towards the window. He stood completely still this time. He made no motion of moving back over towards it. There came a light scratching sound from within the room now, but his eyes never left the window. He was immobilized to that one spot. Ryne's grip tightened on his arms before he finally dared to call out. "Hello…?"

"Hello." The voice came frigid and quite alarming from behind him. Ryne's body shook in apprehension, as he slowly turned around to meet the eyes of the man who had replied to him.

Riku stood there with a light smile on his face. He had his gaze locked on Ryne. He had that same look in his eyes. It was the same stare that he had got this morning. The one that was abnormal and deviant than the usual looks he got from his brother.

Ryne let out of sigh of relief. He hadn't known he'd been holding his breath the entire time. "Riku… it's just you." He said, and let his hands drop to his sides. "Don't sneak up on me like that." He muttered as he looked at his brother. He was relieved to know it was just him.

"Sorry." Riku muttered some, as he moved toward Ryne with a sympathetic smile. "So what'd you do all day?" He asked, giving a small cock of his head. "I know it must have been boring for you in here all day. But it was for the best."

Ryne's gaze shifted over towards the bookshelf a moment. He really didn't want his brother knowing he'd been snooping through his scrapbooks. He didn't want Riku to be upset with him. He looked back, and smiled a bit sheepishly. "Nothing. And I mean that literally." He added the last bit sarcastically. Something occurred to him then, and it started to make him wonder. "Wait, how come I didn't hear the door unlock when you came in?" He asked in question. "Let alone the door even open?"

Riku turned his head to the side a bit and he shrugged a shoulder. "I opened it." He replied, and brought forth the key momentarily before pocketing it once more.

Ryne watched him carefully not really believing him, but decided to let it go. "Right."

Riku nodded as he continued stare at him silently. It was so unnerving and awkward that Ryne had started to fidget now. "Uh… so where did you go today anyway?" It was a question Ryne had wanted to ask him for a while.

A smile formed on Riku's lips. "You want to see?"

Ryne looked at him in puzzlement. "See? How?"

"I'll show you." He said and began moving towards the window. He stopped beside it and beckoned for the other to come over.

Ryne looked at him curiously, but made his way over to it anyway. Riku moved to stand behind Ryne, when he had come towards him. Riku lifted a hand and pointed out over towards the sea.

Ryne followed his gesture, his eyes moving over top of the cities buildings and streets, and then finally the sea. He followed his indication, and had noticed that he was pointing at the island. Ryne blinked and looked up at Riku. "Destiny Island?"

Riku gave a slow nod of his head, and he let his arm drop back down to his side. That only brought up more questions for Ryne now. "Why did you go there? And why for the whole day?"

Riku smiled again and looked at his brother. "For personal reasons."

Ryne watched him carefully before he turned to look back out the window and towards Destiny Island. "Oh." He let the word slip out of his mouth casually. It wasn't right to persist in trying to get his brother to tell him something. But goddamn, he wanted to know.

"Well… I could show you if you like." Riku said softly, as his hands moved to Ryne's hips.

Ryne blushed furiously at how close Riku was moving against body. And his hands… his hands were on his hips? He bit his lower lip, and looked down a bit.

"It's something good, I can tell you that." Riku whispered softly at his ear. A hand had moved lower from his hip to move towards his groin. Two strong fingers gently caressed the tender area in a simple stroke.

Ryne's breath caught in his chest, and his body had twitched at the sharp pleasure that coursed through his body at the one action from Riku. His lips parted some, but he was unable to form any words to answer him.

Riku's other hand moved away from his hip to grasp Ryne's chin in his hand. He turned his head towards his face so that they met eye to eye. There were only a few millimeters of room before their faces would touch. But Riku quickly got rid of those few millimeters to bring their lips together. The kiss was rough, and wasn't exactly gentle. But it still sent shivers down Ryne's spine, and sent his mind into a spinning mess. And with Riku's other hand caressing his groin, it was hard to even care whether or not it was a bit rough.

Riku kept the caressing going, and held the kiss there for a long time, but eventually broke free from it. He only pulled back enough so that he could speak to other. "Or would you rather stay here… with me…"

Ryne could feel Riku's breath against his lips when he spoke, and he desperately wanted them against his again. His mind seemed completely shut off at the moment. His body was in charge now. And his body wanted Riku. Without a second thought, he gave his head a light nod. "Yeah…"

"You'll like what I'm going to show you here much better." Riku smirked, and his grip tightened on the groin a tad more roughly now. Enough to cause some pain this time. "I promise." He muttered a little more harshly at his ear this time.

In one quick motion, Riku had Ryne spun around and had moved him into the direction of the bed. He practically pushed the other towards it and shoved him down onto it. Once he was on the bed, another one of those rough kisses came to the others lips while he straddled him. His arms had Ryne's wrists pinned above his head now as well.

Ryne had cringed a bit at Riku's sudden rough attitude, but didn't care. His dream was coming true. His dreams were finally coming true. He kissed back in anticipation, wanting more of his taste as small moan escaped from his lips into Riku's mouth. There was something… familiar about it though, which made him hesitate in the kiss now. There was no pleasure in this anymore. There was something very wrong about this. He turned his head away to stop the kiss, but Riku was persistent. He nipped at the others lips when Ryne had decided to try and turn away from it. He moved one of the hands to grasp both wrists in a strong hold, while the other hand moved to grasp the others face. He turned Ryne's head so that he could look at him directly. But what he saw wasn't Riku at all. It was someone else. Someone who made his heart stop beating.

He tilted his head a bit, as he continued to pin the other below him. "What's the matter, Ryne?" He leaned in closer to press the haunting face right in front of him. "I thought I was your dream come true?" A dark laugh had started to bubble up from the man's chest as he watched the horrified look seep across Ryne's face.

"I'm back." Xemnas hissed, with a cruel grin upon his face.

(Go to Chapter Five)

© Stravik, 2006