I walked along the hallways of apartments, heading for Soryuju's, or as I call him, Sory. We'd been best friends since before I can remember, along with my cousin Yunnie and Paine. But then he got a girlfriend, and we pretty much lost touch. Then suddenly, I find him and he's totally differnet. He'd joined Order, lost his left arm in some accident, hell, even dyed most of his hair black. I was shocked to say the least. I'd always been fond of Sory, but never thought much of it. When I saw him that day, though, something felt... different. I didn't think too much of it. Hell, I hadn't seen the guy in years. But Yunnie thinks something else, and she won't say it. God I hate it when she knows something and won't tell.

"Here we are." I said dully, walking into the apartment. As I closed the door behind me I groaned. Another boring, uneventful day at the Gizmo. You'd think by 17, I'd have some excitement in my life.

Sighing, I opened the fridge, looking for something to drink. Maybe a soda or something. Nothing.

"Sory, I swear I'll kill you." I complained. Speaking of Sory, I hadn't seen him all day. I wonder if he's all right, and if he is, why the hell he hadn't restocked his damn fridge.

Walking into the hallway of the apartment, I decided to get ready for bed. Going into my section of the apartment, I changed into my pj's and headed for Sory's room. He was never here anyway, so why not sleep in the comfy bed?

Opening the door, I damn near jumped out of my skin. Coming out of the bathroom, he was in nothing but a towel. He jumped more than I did.

"Damnit, Rikku, learn to knock!" he yelled, with the most shocked face I'd ever seen him have. And was that a hint of embarassment? I didn't get a chance to find out because he pushed me out of the room and locked the door.

After a few minutes of laughing my ass off, I stifled the giggles long enough to knock and say "Can I come in yet?"

"What if I said no?" he replied.

"Then I'd pick the lock and come in anyway." I said with my usual cocky attitude. I always win.

"Yeah yeah, just don't try anything." A few seconds later I heard a click and entered.

"Aww, what could I do?" I said with a pout.

He gave me an accusing look. "Only the usual. Try to fuck me."

I grinned. "One of these days, Sory. Just you wait." I said before jumping on his bed and getting comfortable.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" he asked, giving me a look that said the same. "Last time I checked, I said no to your offer." he said, opening a soda that he had apparently brought with him for after the shower.

"Okay, one, you need to buy groceries. I was effing thirsty, and YOU just took the last coke." I said, glaring at him. "And two, since you've been gone, I sleep here. Deal with it."

He was just about to take a sip of his soda before he heard my comments. He turned to me, with that glint in his eye that he always had when he schemed. "Soo... If I give you this." he said, raising the can. "Will you let me sleep in my bed?"

I stared at the can longingly, and turned to look at the pillows. I turned back and forth for a few seconds, trying to decide.

"Fine, damnit!" I exhaled, lunging for the soda. Grabbing it from his hand, I gulped it down within a matter of seconds, throwing it in the garbage basket a few feet away. "Fine. Have your bed, I'll sleep in my own." I said, walking out and into my room, where I crawled in bed and drifted into slumber-tude.

---

Yawning, I sat up. I still felt exhausted as I rubbed my eyes, trying to get the 'dust' out. Stretching, I got out of bed, and looked at the clock. As I did so, my eyes bulged and I began to freak out.

"What the hell! 11:30!" I yelled, frantically running to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get dressed. "That idiot turned my alarm off!" I yelled.

Running out of the apartment, I dashed out towards the Second District, where I normally worked at the Gizmo. Sure, Armie was dead, but someone had to make sure the place didn't completely die.

As I ran through the district, I saw Sory just walking along as he usually did. "Hey, you! Bastard!" I yelled, running towards him.

He stopped to look at me. "Bout time you got up, you lazy bum." he said, turning to face me. "What took you so long?"

"I'll tell you what took me so damn long! You turned off my alarm clock!" I said.

"You seemed tired. And besides, I did try to wake you up." he said, waving her off. "Now, If you'd follow me, I was getting something for 'a girl to eat'." he said, rolling his eyes.

"Alright! Food!" I said, mood quickly changing, skipping along. As soon as we rounded that corner, there was an explosion, throwing me backwards into a streetlamp, where I blacked out.

---

I opened my eyes, trying to adjust to bright lights. Everything was white... was I dead? My vision was slightly blurred, so I tried to wipe my eyes, only to find I had a tube attached to my arm.

"What the hell...?" I cursed lightly, and then realized where I was. I was in a hospital room, in a bed, with all the little gizmos attached. As I looked to my right, I was somewhat surprised to see Sory, smiling like he'd won the lottery.

"Good morning, you lazy bum." he said with a small smile. "Welcome back. Sleep well?" he asked, as if nothing had happened.

"Oh, I'm fine, just.. a bit sore." I admitted. Truthfully, I felt like I had been hit by a freight train.

"Good. In that case-" he said, only to be interrupted by Yunnie's entrance.

"Oh, thank God! Rikku, how are you?" she said, rushing to her side.

"For the second time, I'm fine. It's not that big of a deal, huh?" I said, trying to act fine.

"Rikku, you've been unconscious for almost 2 days now." she said worriedly. "It is that big of a deal."

"What!" I exclaimed, jolting forward. "What about you, Sory?" I said, turning to look at an empty chair. "Where the hell did he go?"

Yuna slightly smiled. "He only had a few head wounds. Good thing, too, because he's the one that ran you in here. After they were done with you, he forced his way up here. He hasn't left your side since."

I gave a confused look. Sory had been with me for almost 2 days? No way.

"Well, anyway, I'm glad to see you're awake. I have to go check on other patients, okay? You gonna be alright by yourself?"

"Yeah... I'll be fine." I said. After she left, I got out of bed, and tip-toed out of the room. I had a hunch I knew right where Sory'd be. As I climbed the stairs to the rooftop, I found him standing alone, staring at the moon.

I walked up to him quietly and stood beside him. "Umm... hey."

He smiled. "Hey there. Shouldn't you be in bed?" he said, not taking his eyes off the moon.

"Well, yeah, but... I wanted to apologize." I said, looking down at my feet. "I didn't mean to worry you..."

"No need to apologize, blondie. Nothing you could've done to stop it." he said, still kind of smiling.

"Well, yeah, but you didn't have to stay with me for 2 da-" I tried to say, but before I could finish, he had turned and kissed me.

My eyes flew open. Why's he doing this? What's going on

After he broke off, he looked into my eyes, and as I could have sworn I saw dried tears. But I couldn't look long enough to be sure, because he then grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. As if to make this any more like a fairy tale, he whispered three words into my ear that I never thought he knew existed.

"I love you."

As we broke apart from the hug, I smiled at him. Now I understood why Yunnie was always giggling when I was talking about him, or when I would complain about where he would be. "I love you too." I said.

As we turned to the moon again, a thought occurred to me. "Hey, now that we're together, does that mean we can-" I tried to say, grinning from ear to ear.

He cut me off before I could finish. "Maybe later."