"Mizu, let's go!"
Kage gently pulled away to look in the direction the voice had come from, her grip loosening only slightly.
"That's my brother," she said, then wiped tears from her cheeks. She turned to grin up at Riku, but something about his expression must have set off an alarm, for her smile slipped from her face. "What's wrong?"
"I remember that voice," Riku told her. "Hades hired him to kill off some guy named Herculese. Kage, I wouldn't trust this guy."
"I've known him longer than you, koishii," Kage said with a slight smile. "He's a mercenary, I'll admit that, and a terrorist, but so am I. Cloud was one of the first people I ever trusted completely. There's no harm in him, really. Come on, I want you to meet him."
"I've already met him," Riku said, somehow refraining from snapping at her. He gently removed her grip from his wrist and backed away a pace. "And I don't trust him."
"You barely even know him, Riku," Kage admonished, still with that slight smile.
"Mizu!" Cloud called again, closer this time.
"Give me a second, aniki!" Kage shouted over her shoulder at him. "Look, Riku, just let me introduce you two. If you still don't trust him, then--"
"I don't care what you two do," Riku did snap. "You can shackle yourself with a thug like him if you want, but I'm not going to."
"I was going to say 'then I'll tell him goodbye and we can go on our way,'" Kage said impatiently. "You're jumping to conclusions, Riku. I may not have seen him in nine years until just a few days ago, but I'd still rather be with you."
Riku stared at her, not quite believing what he'd heard. Despite the smile on her face, he could see that she was dead serious about this, and that confused him momentarily. It was the sincerity in her eyes that convinced him, though.
"Fine," he sighed, "I suppose I can give him a chance." Kage got this look on her face that plainly said "I win!" for only a second before it was gone, and she once again grabbed his hand.
"Then c'mon," she laughed, tugging him along. She ran down the stairs to the lower floor and then right up behind the man, who turned to look at her.
"I was worried for a second," Cloud said. "Who's your friend? Riku?"
"Sorry, and yes, this is Riku," Kage said, then turned to look Riku straight in the eye. "Riku, this is my older brother, Cloud Strife. Cloud, this is my koishii, Riku."
"That's quite a statement, munchkin," Cloud said, almost--but not quite--laughing. He then held out his hand to Riku. "I think I remember seeing you with Maleficent, but Mizu seems to trust you, so I guess I can give you a chance."
"Funny," Riku said, clasping Cloud's hand, "I was about to say basically the same thing. Only you were with Hades, not Maleficent."
"Don't remind me," Cloud groaned. "I still owe that bastard for what he did."
"We'll get him later, aniki," Kage said confidently. "Riku, you sure you don't want to go with him?" Cloud raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Riku, however, ran a hand through his hair and sighed, then locked eyes with Cloud.
"I guess I can stick with you guys," he said, "for a while, anyway." Kage stood on tip-toe and kissed him on the cheek. Riku did his best not to blush, but he still turned a little pink.
"Huzzah!" was Kage's only verbal reaction to Riku's acceptance, eliciting a slight chuckle from Cloud.
"Well," Cloud said, "I'm ready to go whenever you two are, so if either of you have any business to finish up, I'll be waiting outside the Item Shop." With that, he left, headed towards the First District.
"I told you he wasn't so bad," Kage said as soon as he was out of earshot.
"I'm not so sure about that," Riku said, "but I guess I'll go with you two anyway."
"If you don't want to, I understand," Kage insisted. "He already knows that I'm going with you no matter what. Unless you don't want me with you."
"It's not that. It's... I'm sorry, but I just don't trust him."
"Most people don't at first," Kage said patiently. "Just give him a little time, and you'll see why I trusted him right off the bat. Then again, you would too if the first thing he did when you met was save your life..."
"That'd definitely do the trick," Riku admitted. "I'll try to trust him, Kage. I promise I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything."
"That's okay, I understand. And it's all I needed to hear. Now, is there anything you need to do here? Because I've already finished my business."
"No, I'm done," Riku said. "I didn't have anything I needed to do here anyway."
"Okay, then shall we?"
"Heh. Yeah, sure."
