Chapter Fourteen

'You know, sometimes I wonder what your relationship with Riku is,' Ursa turned and looked up from her work at her cousin.

'Hostile and feasible at best,' she answered.

'Really, what about Xemnas. Riku always used to tell me that you two were a thing.'

'We never were, just friends. Why the sudden twenty questions?'

'I am just curious,' Namine took a seat across from her in Walter's empty seat.

'Curious?'

'You're my favorite cousin,' Namine beamed. 'How do I not know if your love life doesn't affect your work?'

'Ex—' she began to choke as her own saliva as it went down the wrong windpipe.

'Hey, are you alright,' Namine rushed over to pat her on the back as she draped herself over the desk.

'Yeah,' she said after a minute, 'just went down the windpipe.'

'Good, can't have you dying on me,' she continued to rub her back.

'Thanks, but I am okay now,' she pulled back from the physical contact. 'But back to what we were talking about, what does Riku have to do with my love life?'

'Because with your indecisiveness, it could ruin your writing process,' Namine decided to stay beside her and took a seat on the edge of her desk.

'He won't disrupt it and my book is almost done,' she told her, and it was true.

'That's great, that means that you can give me an advance copy.'

'Not going to happen, it wouldn't be unfair to my other fans,' since the moment Namine found out who she was, she had been pestering her for book updates. So far, the only thing that she got was two signed copies.

Namine pouted, 'Maybe I should get Riku to convince you.'

Ursa looked up at her, 'You're very obsessed with Riku. Things not going well with Roxas? If not, I wouldn't mind spending more time with him.'

Namine looked at her shocked and in disbelieve, 'Things are going great with me and Roxas. I just feel that you and Riku spend too much time together to just be friends.'

'Well, he is still technically my employee, since he helps take care of all my legal matters,' Ursa answered. 'Plus, he has his own fish to pursue.'

'You don't sound so happy about that last part,' Namine pointed out as she noted how her voice dropped an octave and sounded slightly sorrowful.

'Me, unhappy about that, please,' Ursa waved away her ridiculous notion. 'I'm happy that he's able to move on. Last thing Amistad and I need around the house is a mopey and depressed Riku.'

'That's kind of a blow to my ego that he's moved on so quickly.'

'You're the one that dumped him first and are already with another guy,' Ursa pointed out. 'The one who should be in the gutter depressed that he got passed up is him.'

'Because he's attractive and intelligent,' Namine asked, hoping to catch her unguarded.

'Because he has a big ego,' she wasn't about to get suckered into admitting that, so she got up. 'You know, I think I need to go out and get some fresh air.'

Namine didn't stop her, she just watched her leave, knowing that she had ruffled some on Ursa's feathers and got her to at least realize that Riku was something more than a friend or employee. She sure had a way with trying to put distance between them. Namine sighed as she got up and decided to head out too. 'Riku should be grateful that I am working hard to help him.'

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Ursa had gotten on the elevator and pressed the down button, she needed to actually go and clear her mind. Namine had done a good job of messing with it. Even if Riku was decent looking and had a good head on his shoulders didn't mean that she was attracted to him. He was just an idiot that she was allergic too. She hadn't gone too far, when the elevator opened and revealed her Aunt. She cursed in her head at her luck, 'Well, look who we have here without one of her guardians trailing after her. Didn't know they let you out alone?'

'I don't need anyone protecting me,' she watched as she got into the elevator.

'Still have that little mouth of yours going off,' her Aunt reprimanded her.

'It only answers the truth when spoken to and when it feels like it's necessary.'

'By your tone, I get the feeling that you don't like me.'

'Auntie Rose,' she sweetened her voice, 'I don't know what makes you think that.'

Rose studied the woman draped in white fabric standing before her, 'If you like me, why not let me see what you're hiding.'

'Well, if I show you my darkest secret, well you tell me yours,' she countered.

Rose laughed at her audacity, 'What make you think I have any secrets.'

'We all have them, it's just some are worse than others,' she stated.

The door to the elevator opened and revealed Riku, 'Hey,' he greeted them, mainly Ursa, 'I was just about to head up and look for you.'

'Well, it's your lucky day,' she side stepped her Aunt and the other employee who had gotten on to head down. 'If you'll excuse me, Auntie,' she told her before getting off and turning to watch the doors close on her.

Once the doors closed, she let out the breath that she was holding. She was relieved that she didn't have to spend any more time with her Aunt in an enclosed space. However, now she turned to look over at Riku, who was watching her. 'What, do I have something on my veil,' she asked.

'No, it's just that you seem a little bit tense right now. Want to go out and get some air?'

It was as if he knew her, 'Yeah, I was heading down to do just that. But you said that you were looking for me.'

'Yeah, I needed a distraction and to tell you something,' he pressed the button on the elevator down.

Was he about to tell her that he decided to speed up his plan and go after his future lover? 'What do you have to tell me,' she stood a decent distance away from him so that he wouldn't get all clingy.

'I made a friend like you asked me too and I think that you'd be interested in meeting him,' Riku took a sidestep closer to her.

'Really that great, but you don't need me to sign off on your friends. You're a big boy,' she prayed for the elevator doors to open.

'Of course, I am not having you sign off on him, but he is very interesting,' Riku's hand was about to lift up so that he could place in on her shoulders when the elevator opened, and she quickly jumped inside.

Riku placed his hand down and followed after her, 'So,' she pressed the button to the lobby, 'who's your friend and why would I be interested in him?'

'His name is Sora, he works in accounting. He's only a junior, but he's smart and intuitive,' Riku told her.

'And why would this Sora be of interest to me? Is he single and you're trying to set me up with him,' she asked to tease him?

'No,' he quickly responded, a bit too hotly.

Ursa jumped as he startled her with his reaction, 'Sorry, I'll take note not to be attracted to your friends.'

Of course, she wasn't going to be attracted to any of his friends or any other man for that manner. Once she fell for him, he would do everything in his power to make her happy and feel loved. 'He already has someone special to him and they have a child on the way.'

'Oh,' she nodded, and the elevator arrived downstairs. She got out and Riku followed besides her, as they left the building Ursa couldn't help but notice the looks they were receiving. Making her feel uncomfortable with all the attention, 'Maybe we should go back, you can tell me about Sora in one of the empty conference rooms.'

'Why?'

The further they walked away from the office building the more people looked at them. 'Because people keep staring,' she whispered.

'Let them, we're not doing anything wrong. How about we go to the art gallery nearby?' He offered her a distraction.

'Let's go back,' she started to turn but Riku stopped her.

'When have you ever been so self-conscious of people?'

'When they stare at us and I just realized how cold it is,' she answered.

'Right, we didn't bring any coats,' he took that opportunity and placed his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close. 'We'll share our body heat, until we get to the gallery.'

'This can't get any—' worse, and before she could say that it began to snow. 'Just my luck,' she looked up at the cloudy grey sky.

'Yeah,' he looked down at her, enjoying being able to touch her.

She turned her head slightly so she could look at him and found herself becoming heated at the sight of his handsome smile. Wait, when did his face become handsome? She turned to look forward, swallowing the lump in her throat before saying, 'You wanted to go to an art gallery, we should go. I don't want to get my headpiece wet.'

'Right,' he agreed and walked alongside her until they got to the gallery, where she slipped his grasp.

Stupid Namine, she cursed, getting into her head and saying all that stupid stuff about Riku. She didn't know how she had managed to make it to the gallery, considering her heart was racing a mile a minute and it felt like it was about to explode. If it wasn't for her burqas, she would have been standing out like a sore thumb with her face flaming red. For the time being she needed to put some distance between them, yet how was that possible when they lived and worked together. She couldn't fire him, because he would still be working temporally for the company. She couldn't kick him out of the house, because that would then upset Amistad.

She had rushed inside without looking back at him, so when he placed his hand on her shoulder, she jumped. 'Whoa, are you alright? You've been rather jumpy lately.'

'I am fine,' she reached up and took his hand off her shoulder. 'I was just lost in thought.'

He watched as she evaded him again, it was as much disturbing as it was amusing. He wondered if she was becoming self-conscious of him and that was why she seemed to do anything to get away from him or avoid contact. He followed after her and watched as she took in the paintings. The artist presenting had a thing for making wonderful landscape paints that surrounded couples. The first painting she stopped at was called Once upon a Blue Moon. In it the artist had captured the beautiful night sky that was illuminated by a full moon that was in a light shade of blue. The landscape was a red rose garden with a gazebo in the center of it and inside there was a couple embracing. 'If it was a white rose garden, it could easily be mistaken for your,' Riku stated.

As soon as she turned to look at him and say something, she flared up. The words caught up in her throat as she imagined them playing out the scene in her garden. 'Only I doubt that you'd look as pretty as the girl in the painting,' he teased.

She turned away from him and without a word moved on to the next painting until she came to a stop at 'Everlasting' when she saw the two bodies intertwined by the waterfall, she quickly walked away when Riku stopped beside her. The next one was called 'Union' where the male and female were in wedding attire. The snowy landscape was beautiful with ice crystals in different shapes of flowers and the on lookers were snow figurines. 'Is that the type of wedding you dream of?'

Again, she didn't answer him, she just moved on to the next painting and saw 'Family,' the couple was in a field filled with wildflowers and they had small children chasing after runaway butterflies on a warm summer's day. With a closer look at the female and she noted that she was carrying another child, yet unborn. Her hands wondered to her belly and she thought of the day when she would be able to bare her own child.

'Forever under the same Moon' was the last painting of her lover's collection and she felt herself wanting to be sad but couldn't. The young couple now aged, sat on top of a huge boulder with their backs to the viewers as they looked out at the forest of evergreen trees from their mountain top view. Next to where they were sitting, two tomb stones were drawn, and she could only imaging whom they belonged too. 'That would be nice, being able to spend the rest of eternity with the person you love.'

Ursa could feel her whole body go tense, he was already thinking about spending his life with someone else. It felt like her heart had being cracked and all she wanted to do was lock herself away. Controlling her emotions wasn't easy, 'We should head back. You still have to tell me about your friend Sora.'

'Why don't we go get coffee first and you can sit and listen,' he offered.

'I have work to get back too and so do you,' she told him.

'True, but having a break every now and then helps,' he grabbed her hand before she could make her escape again. 'But before we go, tell me what's wrong.'

'Nothing,' her voice cracked, and she felt the tears that she had been holding back begin to flow freely. Why was she crying because of this idiot, she asked herself as she allowed him to pull her into his arms.

'Nothing, eh,' he asked as he tried to soothe her by running one hand up and down her back.

She wanted to run away from her feelings, but her body wasn't responding the way that she wished and instead she found herself melting into his embrace and burying her face into his chest. 'If anything is bothering you, I am here to listen,' he whispered softly.

Ha, like she could tell him that she was jealous of someone that he wasn't going out with. That she wanted to tell him that she— she stopped her train of thought there as she realized that what she wanted was impossible. All he ever saw in her was a friend. Ursa was about to pull away from him as she came to her senses but froze when she heard the sound of a camera shutter go off. 'I always wanted to do a desert garden.'

She jerked away from Riku and turned to the petit female with sunburnt skin, black hues and short black hair. 'Andy, what did I tell you about taking pictures of people?' Another woman appeared behind her.

'But it was the perfect shot,' she turned to the couple with a smile. 'Come back in a few weeks to see my new masterpiece, 'Desert Rose,'' before they could protest, she and her assistant fled.

'What just happened,' Riku asked.

'I have no idea,' she said as she looked at where the two females disappear too.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Ursa spent the last week busy with work, recording and writing her novel. She refused to take a break or be distracted by a tall, broad shouldered, solid build, silver haired male that roamed around her frequently. Currently, she was locked in her room finishing her novel while Everafter took a nap in his bed. As she read through the last chapter, she realized that there was something familiar about her male protagonist and she groaned as she bumped her head against her desk. 'I must be going crazy or be really naive.'

There was a knock on the door, 'Who is it,' she asked as she got up and walked over to open the door.

'Me,' Amistad called out.

She opened the door and allowed her inside, 'What a pleasant surprise.'

'Your cousin and her boyfriend stopped by,' Amistad told her cheerfully. Ever since she found out that Namine and Riku had split she had been more welcoming to the young woman. She also fancied her new catch and told them what a wonderful couple they made, a blow to her son's ego but he took it rather well.

'Oh,' she joined her at their usual table after she closed her laptop. 'I didn't know that they were stopping by.'

'They said that they just wanted to drop this off for you,' Amistad handed her the box of chocolate that they had given her.

'That's nice of them,' Ursa looked down at the box, curious as to why they would drive all the way to her house to drop them off instead of giving them to her at work on Monday. She opened the box and looked inside at the beautifully crafted chocolates, 'Would you like one,' she offered Amistad.

'No, thank you, my doctor said that I should limit my intake of sweets,' she declined as she looked at the delicious arrangement of candies. 'Aren't you going to have one?'

'Maybe later,' she said as she softly smiled as she put the chocolates away.

'So did you and Riku get into an argument again,' Amistad asked.

'Not that I am aware off,' she answered.

'Really, because he seems to think that he must have done something to upset you.'

'No, it's just I've been busy. My deadline is almost here and I have some other projects that I need to do for my work with Yanni and Ender,' she replied.

'Hmm,' Amistad studied the young woman with a cool expression on her face. 'Well, you should make some time for Riku. You're one of his oldest friends and to have you pull away from him would be heart breaking.'

If I don't pull away from him, I am the one that will be left heart broken, she thought. However, she smiled and nodded, 'Once I finish with my deadline, I'll have more time to annoy your son, so he's not mopping around.'

'Just don't be too mean to him, he's still sensitive,' Amistad smiled at Ursa's cheerful expression.

'I'll try to be nice,' she agreed.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Namine looked over at Roxas worried about what they had just done, 'Do you really think that the candies are necessary?'

'You said that she liked him.'

'Yeah, but…'

'If you're really worried about it, think about it as giving them a little push.'

A little push, yeah right, those candies were like giving her a shove into the deep end of the pool. 'I don't think they are going to see it that way once they realize what we did.'

'After they get passed their anger, they'll thank us,' Roxas reached over and took her hand in his. 'After all this will help them come to the realization that they both like each other.'

'Oh, heavens, she's going to hate me. I don't know why I let you talk me into buying those chocolates,' she began to panic. 'Turn back, maybe we can get them back from her.'

'Trust me, it'll be good for them, they'll be able to get past all the tension they've been giving off lately.'

'No, no,' Namine really should have thought things through more clearly instead of letting Roxas talk her into doing something stupid.

'Don't worry, everything will work out,' Roxas tried to reassure her.

'I am so dead,' Namine cried out after realizing the stupidity of the situation.

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A/N: Oh, no, it seems that Namine got suckered into a crazy ploy that she is now regretting ^_^. I hope that nothing to sandals happens and am grateful that Amistad refused the candy when she did. Remember, you should always listen to your doctor and follow their recommendations. However, that is not to say that I am not looking forward to the next chapter. I hope that you guys are too and with that I hope to see you next time!