Author's Notes: Hello all! Been a minute since I've updated this. Don't mind me. I'm testing out a Riku/OC relationship in this chapter. I see you guys don't particularly care for Sora/OC, so I'll keep my female OC out of a romantic relationship with Sora and make sure they remain friends/enemies. When I come back to the ending chapters, I'll switch out the romantic bits of the ending with a different character and make that interaction between her and Sora a bit more menacing. I'm glad you're giving me that feedback, though, so thank you guys. You are helping me out a lot. It looks like the female OC is also being well-received as a new villain, so thank you for helping me keep her as a more solid character. Eventually, I'll be able to update more regularly on this story, but I'm currently focused on one fic this time. I won't do the back and forth anymore. Since I'm running out of inspiration on that story, however, I figured I'd float over here on this fic for a spell. Just to do something different. Enjoy this new installment! :-D
He supposed this was the part where he could say he hated himself for being curious, but... Riku wanted to take this time to sort of get to know Fait on a different level. He could go back to the Mysterious Tower for a mission himself, but he found he didn't really want to do that this time. Saving his friends and even travelling to different worlds and realms... didn't have the same... flair, he supposed. Not the way it used to. There were smaller details - more beautiful sights - hidden underneath his nose. A different pair of eyes had to help him see that. Just having a moment to breathe was a luxury as a keyblade master. Even though Sora and Kairi were reminiscing about their times on the Play Island like they used to, Riku didn't want to reminisce about the past. He kind of... wanted to do something else. Fait seemed to know more about Destiny Islands than he did and loved his world in a way that was enviable. Fait befriended many inhabitants of his island by just being mysterious and kind, but this side of Fait wasn't the one he often had the chance of seeing. He only ever knew the fighter, the dark apprentice, or the world destroyer. He knew Vulture, the dark side of Fait. So how was she able to access different parts of Destiny Islands and meet so many other people? Seeing her dressed in normal clothes and enjoying the free time that Master Yen Sid allowed her to have in between training sessions made Riku jealous in a way.
It could've been because Fait wasn't like him and didn't have the same responsibilities as he had when he was on the path of a master. No one bequeathed her with the keyblade. It came to her in a time of need similar to how Sora's did. Her friends weren't in immediate danger; in fact, Shinnosuke and Melvin were equally as strong (if not stronger) than her and barely needed protection or assistance in battle. That wasn't to say Fait was a weak opponent, though. He had seen how the blonde fought. She was undeniably methodical and risked her own safety in battle many times when paired with an ally. Riku couldn't get the image of her taking stab wounds for him while being ambushed out of his head. Her arms wrapping around his waist and her torso stretching out and pushing against him in response to the Heartless strike was practically burned into his memory. Fait's grunt and yelp of pain made Riku reconsider his previous thoughts about her. Even when he tossed her a potion, Fait simply tossed it back and healed him first before tapping into her hidden strength. Beyond that, and without evident danger, she seemed to be a genuine person.
She was laughing about something with Sage, the old man who found her camping on the Play Island, before showing Wakka a couple of images that she took on her long-lens camera. Both men were fascinated by her skills and pointed to certain details of her photographs to ask questions. Apparently, her Time Guise turned her into a nature photographer when she first came to Destiny Islands, and she played up that role expertly. That's how she earned some serious munny and was able to access the island's nature institutes and libraries on the Main Island. Watching her suck on a galaxy pop, Riku took in some of her features and was almost taken aback by the softness of them. Riku never did thank Fait for being an ally on his mission. She didn't have to do it. She didn't even ask to join him. Master Yen Sid simply asked Fait if she had anything to do with the Heartless appearing in Radiant Garden and allowed her to help Riku and Mickey as part of her exam. It was for extra credit, supposedly. Credit, the wise mage said, she didn't really need.
"Hey, Fait!" Selphie called, running up to the blonde.
"Mittens! How's it goin'?" Fait replied with a smirk, holding an arm out for Selphie to jump into her side for a hug. Selphie seemed to be taking the truth about Fait actually being a girl and not her dream guy pretty well. At least from what Tidus told Riku. She was more okay with just being her friend instead. Apparently, going with Fait for photography work was more exciting than just the run-of-the-mill adventures. Fait then asked, "Is there any way I can get you to make paopu fruit taste better? Or am I just clean out of luck?"
"I've got nothin' this time," Selphie answered, releasing Fait from the hug. "I dunno why you wanna eat it so much."
"You said it was shareable," Fait replied, shrugging.
"Doesn't guarantee it's edible," Wakka argued. "Thanks to you, I don't wanna eat that thing anymore. Sentimental stuff tastes awful, ya."
"Yass!" Fait whined, laughing with her eyes and only giving a quip of her lips to show she was joking. "Yass, it's awful. I put salt on it. I put pepper on it. I put sugar on it. Mittens baked it into a pie, cupcakes, regular cake, souffle. Tidus put it on a sandwich. Sage made a fruit salad with it. Ain't no salvagin' that stupid fruit, man!"
The group just laughed at her, which made her laugh at herself silently, and inspired Riku to walk towards them. The fullness of her smile rivaled the sun's reflection against the sea. He tried to convince himself that he was just curious about what the paopu fruit tasted like to Fait. Selphie was the one who told him that she mentioned the legend of the paopu fruit to Fait, and that the blonde bit into the fruit after splitting it into pieces to share with Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. Evidently, the fruit had a terrible flavor to the blonde and there was no way to change it up or spice up a dish with it. Riku couldn't recall the paopu fruit being edible himself. He was only familiar with its legend. Fait must've had a truly blonde moment and just heard the word fruit in the story before taking a big chomp out of it. That or she was testing everyone. No one stopped her from eating it, so she must've gotten a clue that it wasn't a poisonous fruit. Regardless, he let Sora and Kairi share whatever moment they were going to share elsewhere while he chose to hang out with Fait.
"Hey, Riku!" Wakka greeted, waving a hand before folding his arms. "You ever went back home to eat dinner yet?"
"I've gone back home plenty of times," Riku replied, looking at Wakka. "What are you guys talking about over here?"
"Fait's got a bunch of requests for work," Selphie answered, taking out her notepad for Fait's requests. "The insectarium wants a Lartath wasp, a blue Avicularia, and a Reclusa beetle."
"How much are they payin' for said creepers?" Fait asked, taking Selphie's notepad and reading the details of each bug.
"The Reclusa beetle is worth 3100 munny because it's so hard to get. It hides in tunnels underground and digs extremely fast to escape predators," Selphie informed, pulling out sales receipts for Fait to observe next. She was still looking at the details, though, which allowed Selphie to continue, "The Lartath wasp is worth 2100. It's a bit easier to find, but its sting is too painful and too dangerous for anyone to get near it. We just have to find its hive. They're actually pretty cool. They build a fortress out of mythril for a hive. The queen wasp gets a 'throne room' of her own and butlers to feed her! The blue Avicularia is worth 850. They're saltwater bugs. It's harder to stop them from running away from you than snapping a picture of them. Professor Gumph said if you can get some exclusive photos of any of them, he'll up the price by 150. Depends on how specific you can get."
"I'm sure you can lure them out," Sage remarked, smirking with confidence. "Continue to be clever about it."
"Clever puts bread on the table. I'm not switchin' it up," Fait remarked, looking at the sales receipts now. This made Sage laugh before he walked away to his boat. "The bug guy didn't say any of these were nocturnal, so I will mooch some dinner out of one of you for the night. After that, we'll start planning. You in, Quicksilver?"
Riku raised an eyebrow with interest in this photography adventure and asked, "You splittin' the munny?"
"If you're coming with, then yeah," Fait replied, locking eyes with Riku and waiting for him to respond. "It's about 1500 split among four if I get all of 'em."
"You should come, Riku. Fait's really good at taking pictures," Wakka encouraged. "Don't get her paopu fruit, though."
"Jerk..." Fait grumbled, flashing a toothy grin as she chuckled lightly. She gave Wakka a look that made her eyes twinkle with some mischief before nodding at Riku and saying, "I'll meet you at the tearoom in the nature park center after dinner. Selphie takes care of things on my job board while I talk to the professors. You'll probably spot her first when you walk in. Wakka and Tidus usually look into camera equipment for me if anything new came out. He'll be in town probably. I'll either be in the locker room or study room."
Riku was quiet with contemplation in his features before he asked, "Mind riding with me? I have a couple questions."
"Sure. Just don't drown me," Fait joked, giving Riku a look before standing up straight and walking to the docks. "I'm getting hungry."
The ride to the Main Island with Fait was pretty quiet. She seemed to enjoy being at sea as she looked out to it calmly. She wasn't gazing at the sunset like most people would. Instead, she leaned back or leaned on her side to look for something in the waters. A large creature emerged from the waters and chirped, making the blonde huff and wave at the fin of the sea beast. It might've been a whale. She must've engaged with it at some point to earn its appearance on the surface. This made Riku look at Fait a bit closer and wonder. Why did the Time Guise choose a photographer? What made her so different?
"Why didn't you let us heal you?" Riku asked softly, not really focused on either question he posed for himself mentally. "Do you wanna be enemies that bad?"
Fait merely turned to him and replied, "You lost a lot of your strength. I don't heal until the rest of the crew is healed. It's how I roll. If you're gonna be that nitpicky about it, just call me as a last resort instead."
"You didn't have to do that," Riku said, practically whispering to himself as he looked out at sea. "We're a team! If you're hurt, we jump in to help."
Fait smiled in return and responded gently, "Part of being on a successful team mission is making sure the team survives every battle. I'll always be your support if you let me. Taking a hit or two is nothing if it means you can keep going forward."
Riku was angry at Fait's words and clutched his boat oar like he wanted to snap it in two. He finally had enough and said, "So dying is the only option for you? You can't keep risking your life like this! Too many people care about you! Don't they mean anything to you at all?"
Fait was quiet for a moment before she looked at her hands and said, "Dying is my final option for the people I love so strongly. My greatest disappointment... my greatest fear... is being too weak to protect them. That hasn't changed and probably will never change. I will fight to my last breath if it means my people are safe. For now, this includes you. I can afford to lose my life. I can't afford to lose my strength."
"That's ridiculous!" Riku snapped.
Fait only smiled at this and chuckled before saying, "You'd rather I let you protect me?"
"I - " Riku started, lightly blushing. "You - ! That's not what I meant!"
"You worry a lot about your friends," Fait said, keeping her smile and gentle tone. "That's very sweet. Guess that's why they talk about you so much."
"Huh?" Riku questioned, locking eyes with the blonde. He noticed that they weren't really blue or purple when he really looked at them. They were a proper mixture of both colors... just like Fait's powers. And his. The serenity of blue like light and the regality of purple like darkness. She was wearing makeup again, too. The wings across her eyelids made him practically stare at her, but the eyeshadow made him trace the sharpness and curvature of her eye shape. When he realized he had been staring for too long, he said, "They probably just talk about the competitions we used to have."
"Actually, I didn't know that," Fait replied with interest. "They mostly mentioned you wanting to protect them and always taking the lead on things, even exploring. You're the silver knight to them. If you're this riled up over me healing you, you must get livid when you can't protect your friends the way you want to."
"Not really livid," Riku responded, looking to his side with a slight blush. "Frustrated, I guess. Maybe even invigorated because I fight a whole lot harder when my friends are in danger."
Fait was quiet at those words and dropped her smile to simply look at her peer. She then said, "You should be more careful in who you call a friend. You forget... I'm only training to be a keyblade master because Maleficent wants me to, not because I'm trying to escape her or figure myself out. We're not enemies right now, but I can't guarantee we won't be when this is over. You're not like Sora, and you've kept a healthy dose of suspicion around me all this time, so I've no doubt you're aware of this. I'm very flattered that you want to protect me the way you do your friends. This is the sweetest, nicest, and probably the cutest you've ever been around me. For what it's worth, I'd like to remember you like this and be around you more when you're this way, but I know Maleficent quite well. I don't want what I do here to cloud your mind or what you do with your friends to cloud mine. I'll try my best to make sure your world is safe from her clutches for now, but I won't be able to do it forever."
"Why are you being so friendly then?" Riku asked, narrowing his eyes and frowning visibly.
"To see if there's anything worth protecting," Fait answered, making Riku gasp from her honesty and seriousness. "It's the one thing I'm thankful for having bits of light for. I can't save every world, but I can help the people of those worlds escape to a place of refuge. I used to lead them to Traverse Town. These days, I've been able to give options. Your friends, and a few other civilians, are worth protecting. I understand why you want the power to ensure their safety."
"There's nothing we can do to change your mind? You have it in you to help others. Why destroy everything they know?" Riku questioned, placing his oar down for a moment.
"Because Maleficent can destroy everything that I know," Fait answered. "Being your friend isn't worth losing everything. You're not going to be able to convince me otherwise when I know what she's capable of doing. I couldn't care less if she ends me. That seems to be the only way to get rid of my light and darkness. I'd be crushed if she ended the lives of the people I've learned to love. Every world has had something precious in it. There has always been something worth protecting and even a reason to protect everything, but disobedience is what really has been destroying the worlds. If I don't give her the means to conquer the worlds, I lose the ability to protect the things that are worth fighting for. She takes my power and forces me to grieve over the loss before my memories are suddenly taken away. You make fun of it and even threaten to smash it, but my Time Guise is the only thing I have that allows me to keep something that reminds me of the people or places I lost. It chooses these roles for me to better understand the world and its people. Your world, Destiny Islands, is worth protecting just like your friends. Don't take that away from me."