Disclaimer: Don't own anything except Amaya and the creepy dude inside the rock.

A/N: Now, finally, here comes the scene that started the entire fic. Yep, I wrote this entire story just to get to this scene. It's just grown so out of control that it's gotten (gasp!) a plot! This moment will seem anticlimactic to everyone but me. (tries to put a sweat-dropping emoticon here but fails because of fan's formatting) Fear the angst!

Chapter 16

I hadn't realized it was raining until I had run out the door, but it didn't stop me. He knew he knew he knew he knew and I'd seen the shock on his face and I wasn't going to wait for the hurt and the disgust and the anger that would be there next because he knew.

I didn't know where I was going, I just kept running, across the empty square and down street after street, deciding on the spur of the moment which corners to turn, and how many blocks to go, and reading neon signs that said Shoes and Dresses and Hats. The rain starting coming down harder, and it felt as though I'd just jumped into a pool of water. I didn't think it was possible to be this wet. But I kept running, because I had no idea where I was going, and if I stopped then I would be there, and I didn't want to be here. I could feel the huge drops hitting my bare arms as I ran, the puddles from the ground soaking through my pajama legs, and the water tricking down into the shoes I'd jammed onto my feet. I almost liked the sharp sting of every frigid drop against my already-cold skin, the sight of my breath rising in a cloud before me as I kept running. Anywhere, just to be away.

Why did I think I could do this? Why did I think I was worthy of this? If I was trapped, alone, on a barren planet, it was my own fault that it was that way. It was my own fault that Papa stopped trying to call to me through the shield. He'd seen what I'd done and he'd stopped loving me and I wasn't there to help him anymore and that's why he was bad. Don't be so egotistical! Like I ever could have helped him! But all I ever do is bad. All I ever do is destroy things. That's why no one wanted to be my friend. Everyone wanted to be Kairi's friend because Kairi wasn't like us. Kairi was sunshine and smiles, and Amaya and Ansem were dark and brooding and everyone just left them alone, because nobody liked them because they were dark and brooding and they got what they deserved so leave them alone.

It was a while before I finally stopped on some street I didn't recognize and sat down next to a soggy sign that read "Today Only! Buy One Get One Half Price!" and realized with a start that I was crying, and probably had been for some time. I tried to control my sobs but gave up in favor of muffling them, my arms wrapped around my knees and my face hiding behind them. I stayed like that for a while before I started wondering what I was going to do. I'd just run away from the only friends I had here, but I couldn't go back. Now that I'd seen Riku's shock, I realized what I burden I must have been to the others, how much I'd been asking when I begged them to forget my father's sins. And when I asked myself to forget mine. I knew that was no longer possible.

But where could I go? As much as I deserved it, I desperately did not want to go back to the planet from which I'd come: either of them. According to the others, Hollow Bastion was no more our home now than Traverse Town was—it was an empty shell of a place, completely overrun by Heartless, even after the door had been closed. And I knew for a fact that other world was still dead. I had done enough damage to that place; I would not return. But where to go? I couldn't seem to help causing pain wherever I went.

I heard footsteps coming down the alleyway, and quickly tried to stifle my sobs. I must not have quieted them quickly enough, for still the footsteps moved forward. With a desperate effort I pushed myself off the wet cobblestones and tore down to the other side of the alley, where it connected with another larger street.

"Wait, Amaya!" The footsteps followed me.

No, no, no, no. The word played as a constant mantra in my head as I quickly turned down another small alley, but he caught up to me.

"Wait, Amaya. Wait. Will you wait?" He grabbed a hold of my arm, which I ineffectually tried to tear out of his grasp.

"Let me go," I almost sobbed.

"I'm sorry, Amaya. I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have listened at the door, okay? I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" I almost laughed. "You're sorry. Well, yeah, I'm sorry, too. I 'm sorry that I'm a world-destroying freak who's dad made everyone's life a living hell!"

I stopped trying to pull away, but I sank against the brick wall at my back, dragging him down with me.

We just sat there a while, with him in a sort of half-kneeling position in front of me. Then he started laughing. "I still can't believe you used a curse word."

I glared at him, "All this stuff, and all you can think about is my word choice? I'm allowed to curse when I'm upset, too, aren't I?"

"Well, yeah, but it sounds funny coming out of you. Come on. Let's go back."

He tried to pull me up, but I used every muscle in my body to keep sitting. "Don't you get it? I can't go back! Don't you see what we do? We destroy things. We destroy lives."

"He destroyed things. You didn't. You didn't do anything! For heaven's sake . . ." He leaned over and brushed some of my wet hair out of my face, "I am way more responsible for any of this than you could ever be."

I shook my head, "You don't understand. I'm just as capable . . .I could have done any of the stuff he did. I could have . . ."

"But you haven't. God, Amaya, you don't even understand how innocent you really are . . ."

"No! You don't understand!" I made him look at me. I made myself look into those blue-green eyes that still didn't see. "I have. I destroyed an entire planet. Just because I was too afraid to face what we had unleashed. I didn't care about anyone else. I destroyed all life on an entire world!" I saw the shock wash over him anew with this information. I swallowed and went on. "The world was barren because of me. The shield was of my own creation! And I used you because I was too weak to take it down myself!" I tried to say some more things, but even I'm not sure what they were, and they were so lost in the sobs that were racking my whole body I knew he didn't understand either. I tried to brace myself as best as I could for what was coming. He would yell and scream, or maybe he would just tell me to get out, to go back where I'd come from. Maybe he would blame me for everything that happened to him, or maybe he'd just walk away and leave me here. Whatever he did, I was ready; he couldn't break my heart any more than it was already broken. I wasn't prepared for what really happened.

I heard the rustling of his jacket and felt the shadow falling over me without really comprehending what they meant. I almost jumped out of my skin when I felt his hand touch my shoulder. I looked up at him, and his face didn't say anything about anger, disgust, shock or fear. I did not know the look he was giving me, only that it seemed like the saddest smile I'd ever seen.

He stared at me like that for a minute, trying to brush the rainwater and tears off my face, only to have more fall down it. "Then . . ." he started, moving closer, so he was on his knees, one hand on the wall near my shoulder, the other on the wet ground, "We're the same." And then he kissed me.

I'm not going to describe it like some kind of fairy-tale kiss or something, because that would be a plain lie. It was my first kiss, and, I think his too, so we were clumsy. I was still crying. Our noses bumped. His lips were chapped. I didn't open my eyes when he moved away and started nuzzling under my ear, or when he pressed his lips softly to the corner of mine.

"Come on," he said softly, "Let's get out of this rain, huh?" He took off the windbreaker and put it over me, though I couldn't see what purpose that would serve, seeing as I was already about as soaked as I was going to get. I didn't protest. I walked the first few blocks in the sort of numb bonelessness that follows a good cry. I took myself by surprise when I stopped walking.

He felt the pull on his hand when I stopped following. He turned, "What it is?"

I motioned him closer. He moved closer. And I kissed him. And I kissed him again. And then he kissed me.

"Seriously," he said, leaning his forehead against mine, "As fun as this is, I need to get you inside before you catch pneumonia."

"Who cares about pneumonia?" I tried to catch his lips again.

"I do. I can't kiss you if you've got pneumonia." He paused for a minute. "It's okay, you know. You don't have to be afraid of going back."

I closed my eyes and pillowed my head on his shoulder. "I—What will they think, Riku?"

"Well, from what I understand," he rubbed circles on my back, "You've got some really good friends back there, that have known all along, and they've had no problem with it. And if Sora and Kairi could forgive me, after everything I've done . . ." he paused for a second.

I nodded against him, "I don't know all of it. I wouldn't have anyone but you tell me that. But I do know parts of it."

He sighed. "If they could forgive me after all I put them through, why should they have any problem with you? Okay?"

I took a deep breath, "Okay."

"Okay, then let's go."

Just as we made it to the front door, the handle started turning from the inside and we were confronted with Leon, who ended up doing a funny little dance to let us in and avoid hitting us with the gunblade. He, naturally, discarded his rain slicker and leaned against the wall as if nothing had happened.

"Oh! You guys are soaking wet!" Aerith walked forward, covered from her neck all the way to her manicured toes in a pink fluffy robe. "Here you go, we'll get each of you set in a bath to get all that cold out of you." She lead us down the hallway, pushing Riku into a room on one side on the hallway, and pushing me into a later one on the other side.

I turned on the water and peeled off my wet clothes, treating the jacket lovingly. Until, of course, I saw the word Strife written in permanent marker on the tag. Then I just left it in the same corner with the rest of my clothes. I'd only just pulled the curtain closed across the bathtub when Aerith walked in. She laughed.

"I think Riku and I both wish he'd thought to do that!"

'Why didn't you think to knock?' I wondered

"Anyway, I just came in to bring you some towels and a change of clothes."

"Aerith."

"Yes?"

" . . .He knows."

"Ah."

" . . ."

"Well, geez, are you sure it's Amaya back there, or did Leon somehow sneak into that tub?"

I smiled. "He took it well."

"I'm glad," she answered. That's Aerith's way of saying, "I told you so."

" . . .Thank you."

"Don't worry about it, Amaya." She paused just before opening the door. "I mean that." She left and closed the door behind her. I sank chin-deep into the blissfully warm water and firmly ordered myself not to think for the next half-hour.

Review Shout-outs

Riku of Darkness: I'll just respond to both reviews here, since you were kind enough to review both chapters. I'm so glad you like the fic, though I don't know what I've done to deserve all the praise . . .ah, well, mine is not to question. At least, not to question compliments. Hopefully this lived up to your expectations . . .I'm beginning to wonder what I'd do without all your support.

Ice Dagger: Yes, the jacket would drown us, wouldn't it? ;) Anyway, I'm glad you like Riku . . .I think a lot of people forget that he is only fifteen. Either that, or there are a lot of people that are more mature than I was at fifteen.

Tiger Kiss: Was this soon enough?

PussycatDoll101: I know, I'm crying too! Every time I hear a release date, they say "Just kidding! Wait a few more months!" Now, I've found two websites that say March 1, but my local EB Games said May 2. ;;

Sorasbro13: Thank you for reviewing, even though you didn't particularly like the fic. It means a lot to me that you bothered to read it all the way through, and managed to say something critical without being rude. I'm probably wasting space responding (since you probably didn't come back), but I thought I'd give a shout-out just in case:)