A/N: Mwa ha ha ha! I have returned! Happy Belated Christmas! Happy New Year! I'm moving reviewer shout-outs to the bottom, because I actually have more than two! My happiness is a golden poem.

Disclaimer:

Chibi Riku: Hey, you forgot about us last disclaimer!

Aries28: Why, so I did. So sorry about that, Riku.

Chibi Cloud: Hey, what about me?

Aries28: Sorry Cloud, and you, too Squall.

Chibi Squall: Whatever. (uses gunblade to cut through ropes holding Riku) I'm out of here.

Chibi Riku: Why didn't you do that before?

Chibi Squall: (Shrug)

Aries28: Wait guys, don't go! The fangirls are still—

Cloud, Squall, and Riku: Ahhhhh!

Fangirls: OhmygodohmygodohmygoditsRikuandCloudandSquall! (Proceed to try and rip the poor Chibis apart)

Aries28: Well, I don't own anything except Amaya and her own little wacko storyline. Now I gotta go save the boys . . . .

Chapter 9: Another Small Problem

We sat down in some cute little 50s diner, Aerith and I somehow making room for the bags underneath the table. Just when we'd all gotten situated, Riku and Aerith in the middle of the booth and Sora and I at either end, Aerith needed to go to the bathroom.

"You just went fifteen minutes ago."

"But then I drank that mocha!"

I rolled my eyes and let her up, sitting at the edge so I could get up again when she came back, and listened as the guys talked about this video game and how the X-Men could so beat Spiderman ("That's not fair, ganging up on him like that! There's only one Spiderman, there's tons of X-Men!" "Fine, then, Wolverine could beat Spiderman." "Could not!"). A waiter came by and took our orders.

"Hey, Amaya, you okay?" asked Riku, his blue, no wait, green, no wait . . .eyes looking at me in concern.

"Hm? Oh yeah, I'm fine."

"You're awful quiet. And you're sitting way out in China. I swear, I don't have cooties, though I can't promise for him," he grinned, gesturing toward Sora, who was too busy gulping down a soda to retaliate with anything besides a mock glare.

"When Aeirth comes back, she's going to want her seat . . ."

He rolled his eyes, "Come here," and grabbed my arm, pulling me into a one-armed squeeze, so close my cheek was right against his. After a second, he released me from the tight hug, but didn't remove his arm from around my shoulders.

"I'm back!" Aerith announced.

"Hang on just a minute and I'll scoot out . . ."

"Oh, don't bother, I'll just sit at the end," she gave me a knowing wink. Gah! I'm not—he's not—why do all these people think that we're—

"Heeeeyyy . . ." Riku said, "You better have been thinking about me, the way you were blushing."

I could have died from embarrassment, but he just laughed and went back to talking to Sora, every few seconds using the fingers he was resting on my shoulder to draw little circles on my arm or play with my hair.

'What does he think he's doing?'

'Come on, you know you like it.'

'Well, yeah, but that's not the point! He's being entirely too forward, and . . .'

'You like it 'cause you're too shy to do it yourself.'

'Again, not the point! I should take his arm off me right now. And . . .now. And . . .now.'

The arm stayed there. I didn't raise a hand, or shrug a shoulder. Still apparently disturbed by my silence, he gave me another squeeze—one that, too my horror, I leaned into—and looked at my questioningly, "You sure you're okay?"

I smiled, or, at least, I think I did. "Yeah. I just like to listen to you guys talk."

My own voice sounded ridiculous in my ears—it was high-pitched, the words were jumbled and jumped about like I was in an earthquake. He didn't seem to notice, but I felt his glances, and tried to participate in the conversation when I could.

Finally, the meal was over! Freedom!

"Hey, do you need help with those bags?"

I jumped in to say, "No, we're fine," but Aerith beat me to it, "Thank you so much, Riku, that would be great."

There was no doubt that Aerith saw my embarrassment and enjoyed it immensely, "Actually, Amaya's really got the heavier bags, why don't you grab some of hers?"

Riku grabbed the bags on the floor, just as I reached for them, leaving us eye-to-eye, both grabbing at the thin plastic handles.

"I can get them, really."

"So can I. Besides, you've got two in your other hand already."

"It's no big deal, weren't you hanging out with Sora?"

He waved a free hand dismissively, "I can hang out with him plenty later."

Apparently, he wasn't going to let go of the bag, so I relinquished my hold, "Well, alright, sir knight. Just this once," I tried to tease, hoping I looked half as cute as Aerith kept insisting I did.

When we stepped out of the restaurant, we couldn't see Aerith anywhere. She must have gotten ahead of us while we'd been arguing over the bags. So we decided to walk down the sun-soaked streets without her. I'd been used to much cooler weather, but I wouldn't let Aeirth buy me any shorts or short skirts. Now I regretted that decision, as well as the decision to buy a long-sleeved shirt. Riku pointed out this and that, occasionally expressing surprise at how much the city had grown since he had been here last.

I was looking at the signs on one of the shops—most were in English, but many were in languages that I couldn't even begin to read—when I suddenly heard, "Watch out!"

Riku pushed me to one side, against a brick wall, covering my body with his as a few guys on skateboards flew by, forcing most of the pedestrians into the street.

"Jerks . . ." he muttered, not seeming to notice how extremely close we were. But I noticed. Oh boy did I notice. In a way that made me want to cover my stop-light-red face and run out of there. Finally, he pushed himself away, but he grabbed my free hand with his, "Sorry about that. Are you okay?"

No, I am not okay. My heart's going about a hundred beats a second, and you had me pinned against a wall and now you're holding my hand and looking straight at me with those . . .

Now amused eyes, "Hello? Amaya? You there?"

I blinked, "What color are your eyes, Riku?"

"Huh?"

"Well, I could have sworn they were blue, but now they look green."

"Oh," he cleared some hair out of his eyes with a toss of his head, "They change color sometimes. Ya know, depending on what I'm wearing or whatever."

"They're really . . .cool." Was it okay to tell a guy he had beautiful eyes? Was beautiful too feminine?

"Thanks," he flashed a bright smile and started walking down the sidewalk again, not releasing my hand, "But now if I say anything about how beautiful yours are, I'll sound like a copy-cat."

"Hey, I'm always open to compliments," I said, making a great show of leaning my ear toward him.

"Nope, nope, nope, can't give you one if you're expecting one."

"Aw, darn it."

Before I knew it, we were at the door, stepping inside without a break in our laughter.

Leon held his gunblade out in front of him, deflecting all of Yuffie's throwing stars as she threw them from different angles, sometimes two at a time, being careful not to go for the ones meant for Cloud.

"Whoa, Squall!" Yuffie complained as one of the deflected stars came within inches of her face.

"You wanted to train with us. I'm not the only one who can hit those back at you, you know. And it's Leon."

She stuck out a tongue and started collecting the now-scattered stars, "You don't have to be so mean about it."

Leon didn't even bother to answer. She liked putting on a show of being a brat. She thought it made her cute. Yeah, cute. Like the squirrel that stole your peanuts cute. Whatever. He resisted the urge to fidget as Yuffie continued to bounce all around their training area looking for all her throwing stars.

He'd talked to Merlin earlier that day. It turns out the situation was very quickly going to hell. Merlin had said that there was still time, and still hope, but damn if Leon could see it. And it didn't help that so much of the information they needed had been lost generations ago. Even Merlin's extensive library didn't offer any concrete plans with how to deal with this.

Leon was exercising all his strength to not let any of his worries show on his face. If anyone saw him acting anything but stoic, they'd want to know all about it. Aerith would probably see right through him anyway; she always did. But what the hell was he supposed to do?

For better or for worse, he was this town's unofficial leader. Looking for a new home? Go to Leon. Looking for a job? Go to Leon. Heartless spotted in the city? Go to Leon. Really, he was surprised he ever got any sleep. He didn't know why these people wanted him to save them. He couldn't save anyone.

He'd failed so many people. Rinoa: dead. Zell: dead. Tifa: dead. Cloud: stuck under Hades's control for years. And now a new name to add to the list; Amaya; stuck alone on some barren world for the better part of a decade. So many people that he had failed.

Merlin had talked with Leon, and the two had tried to theorize why the worlds had not been restored. Something had gone wrong. Something was very wrong. In the end, Merlin had said that locking the keyholes had solved the short-term problem, and would protect the worlds from being lost completely, but it would not stop the heartless from encroaching upon the people on the worlds, or stop the heartless from moving on to new worlds.

There was supposed to be a way to really save the worlds. That was what the keyblade was for! So why the hell couldn't he figure it out? And why was it his responsibility anyway? He wasn't the keyblade master! He wasn't supposed to save the worlds! Instead, the keyblade was in the hands of a kid who didn't even know what the hell he was doing, and so Leon was stuck brainstorming with a man old enough to be his grandfather. He was done thinking; he wanted to act!

"God dammit!"

Yuffie stared with wide eyes at the star embedded in the bricks just over where her head had been. Cloud looked shock as well, and kept looking back and forth between Leon and Yuffie, then, with the tone of one who is trying very hard to remain calm, said, "What was up with that outburst?"

"Seriously . . ." Yuffie added, "Thank God you at least yelled, or else I probably wouldn't have ducked in time. That coulda hit me straight in the eye!"

Had he yelled? How much had he been saying out loud? He averted his eyes, "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"What was that?" Cloud reiterated.

"Nothing,"Leon answered, hoisting his weapon over his shoulder, "I'm going for a walk."

For once, Yuffie didn't protest.

He blinked as he walked into the bright sun. It was always hard to tell what time it was down in that cavern, where it was dark any time of the day or night. He slogged through the water—it grossed Yuffie out, but it was just part of an abandoned fountain project, so that water was clean—frowning as he walked into the busy Business District. People looked at his weapon oddly, until recognizing who he was, at which point they dissolved into whispers, "discreet" points, and, in the case of some teenage girls, giggles. He tried to ignore it, frowning against the glare of the hot sun on the white sidewalks. He always resolved to buy sunglasses, but he either forgot to buy them, or bought them and left them at home. Besides, they were useless half the year anyway.

What had that been back there? He never acted out like that. It was a point of—well, not of pride, exactly, but of honor—to him that he didn't do things like that. He had a responsibility, though he'd never asked for it. He had to protect these people. Keep this place safe from the things that had ravaged their first homes. He didn't have time for temper tantrums. It's just that . . .

These people depended on him. He hadn't invited it, but now that he had it, he didn't want to let them down. And he was so scared that that was exactly what he was going to do. He couldn't promise to keep these people safe. He couldn't keep anyone safe. And he felt rather like crying. Or at least punching something really hard.

As if zeroing in on his thoughts of Hollow Bastion, Amaya came walking down the street with the white-haired kid. Although she didn't think of him as a kid, if their intertwined fingers were any indication. And though he could see her laughing and talking with the boy, he couldn't hear her. Instead he heard her small shrill scream ripping through hid ears in that last second before everything had gone black and he'd hurtled through the bone-breaking cold of the Void.

He thought he might be sick. He slipped away just as her eyes scanned the place he had been, and skimmed right past

Reviewer Responses:

Jennifer: Thanks for the heads up; I fixed it! (And I fixed how I spelled your name! Can't believe I did that! Bonks self on head) Here's Chapter 9 for ya!

Angel of Darkness and Light: Yay! A new reader! (Opens a bottle of sparkling cider to celebrate) I'm going on a favorites list? (Blushes) Thank you . . .I'm glad that you find the end of chapter seven funny! Here's chapter 9!

Riku of Darkness: I appreciate all the helpful comments! You gave me such an ego boost! I'll try my best to meet your high hopes:)

Person with really long name: Hee hee, hope you don't mind me poking a little fun at the penname! Any-whoos, I'm glad you like the couple! Most people see "OC" and go running for the hills (Not that I blame them . . .)

TenchiKai? Eeeeddoooo . . .did some of your review not come through? I see you quoted a particular line . . .was it a typo? I don't understand . . .Thank you for taking the time to review, though. I reviewed your story, but I don't know if it went through (my comp has been having troubles with the review system for some reason), so if it didn't come through, let me know and I'll go review again:)