Thanks to Ellen Brand, Waywren Truesong, Joisbishmyoga, Cherry, and Cloudy for cheer reading and beta work.

New Horizons

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living.
~East Coker, V.19-21. T.S. Eliot.

A use of Blue Medicine and the requisite recovery time later, Kaito's mental state and energy levels felt back to as normal as he ever got these days. And as braced as possible to find out if Méraud and Lupin had been right about their chances of finally traveling without unwelcome detours.

Saguru had deftly handled the adults while Kaito'd crashed hard for another few hours of sleep (after finishing the last of the tea thermos so no nightmares of any sort could interfere with the intended recovery). By the time Kaito returned to proper alertness, it was already understood that they'd be leaving immediately after dinner.

Kaito helped Jii prepare the meal while Saguru consulted a final time with Inspector Hakuba and Kurou about their plans for the future. Kaito had high hopes for a positive outcome in the end, even some kind of understanding or truce between Kudou and Kurou—Kudou having Sherry in his social circle meant he had some concept of a repentant or unwilling crow, and Kurou had made a point of Not Knowing certain impossible things he didn't want to know. Like the potential connection between the quiet scientist they'd escorted from America to Japan after the Golden Apple events, and the quiet girl with the exact same bone structure in the pack of middle school detectives Kudou mentored.

Dinner was blessedly quiet, and at the end of it Kaito and Saguru retreated to the downstairs office while the adults discussed practical details of Jii's assistance after the switch to Kudou's safe house. At this point, Jii knowing they'd vanished from inside the Blue Parrot without a door opening was less of a concern than trying to leave while outside, with the inherent risks of being noticed by any passersby.

The door closed behind them.

"When you're ready," Saguru prompted dryly after Kaito failed to get them out of there right away.

Kaito chewed the inside of his cheek and stared unseeingly at the office's wall, last-second paranoia preying on his nerves, but there was nothing else left to do.

He closed his eyes, raised a hand to focus, and -pulled- for Riku-MYfriend-Homesafe-Outofsight-Goodtiming.

Reality parted like a curtain into blinding sunshine, the unmistakable smell of salt water and wet sand, and the welcome sense of Shadow-energy flooding into Kaito's awareness. The sound of voices raised in friendly competition echoed somewhere past the edges of their doorway.

Then, still out of sight, Sora's voice—Kaito remembered it clearly enough despite their brief interactions—said, "Riku, what's wrong?"

Kaito darted forward, waiting only long enough to be sure Saguru was also safely through before he let the rift drop and sprinted for the blazing familiar feel of lightdarkshadowbalance hidden on the other side of a high wooden wall. By the time Kaito'd made it over the raised wooden platforms leading to his goal, the door in the wall had slammed open to reveal Riku, healthy and whole and face lit up almost as bright as the disgustingly tropical sun.

"Kaito-kun!"

Kaito skidded to a halt on the sandy rocks just in time to meet Riku lunging forward in a bruising hug. He laughed and hugged back, grinning so hard his cheeks hurt as Sora and Kairi appeared through the doorway as well. "Good to see you're all okay. Sorry we're late, I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque."

Riku pulled back and wrinkled his nose in confusion, oddly young after so long seeing him in his other appearance. "What does that even mean?"

"It means Kuroba watches too many old American cartoons," Saguru answered, feet thumping into the sand behind Kaito.

"It was good accent practice," Kaito counters, still grinning.

"And as Bugs Bunny is one of the original tricksters of the modern age, I'm entirely unsurprised you loved him." Saguru turned his attention back to the younger teens. "Is this your home? Did things end all right after we disappeared? We would have returned sooner, but Kuroba had… difficulties with his aim."

"This is the teen hangout island!" Sora volunteered cheerfully. "We're about five minutes in a rowboat from the town."

"And things turned out as well as we could have hoped," Riku continued. "Together we took care of Xemnas, and made it home."

"After you worried me to bits again!" Kairi complained, though she was also smiling. "You're lucky you only took most of a day to make it back after the portal closed early."

"Make it back? From the freaky castle?" Kaito asked.

Riku nodded. "Well, it ended up being a weird place like the wild Shadows we went through with Méraud-san, but it was where Xemnas made his last stand after we thought we'd defeated him the first time."

Bouncing on his toes, Sora added, "Riku and I fought him together! And then we ended up stranded on a beach near a dark ocean, but a letter in a bottle Kairi'd sent me ages ago washed up there, and thinking of her opened a door back here to the islands!"

"More like a hole in the sky," Riku responded. "We landed safely, though, and we've been back over a month already. I was… we were starting to wonder if the Heartless got you after all."

Kaito squeezed Riku's shoulder. "Something almost did, but I swear we're fine. At least now."

Riku looked him up and down, silently assessing. "You're sure?"

"As well as we can be," Saguru answered. "The details are rather complicated to go into while standing in the sun, however… Is there somewhere else we could talk?"

"The treehouse would work! C'mon, we can show you!" Sora led the way across the island, pointing out other landmarks with commentary from Riku and Kairi until they reached a large treehouse on the far side of the beach. From its shaded interior, the view of other islands and the trio's hometown was spectacular. By the time Kaito finished admiring it all, Riku had dug out a stash of drinks from inside the supporting tree's gargantuan trunk and was passing them around.

Saguru raised an eyebrow as he accepted two bottles and handed one along to Kaito. "How is this still cold? There's no refrigeration setup in that space."

In answer, Sora grinned mischievously, manifested his keyblade aiming at the tree, and with a quick "Deep freeze!", the hollowed out area frosted over. "Don't tell Master Yen Sid."

"No idea who that is, and I like how you think, so that's easy," Kaito replied. He settled on a cushion and leaned against the smooth wooden wall of the treehouse, taking a drink of the cold soda. "You said you've been back for weeks—did everything work out okay with the whole… gone for almost a year?"

Riku grimaced."Before the islands were restored and then while Sora was asleep, people didn't actually remember us to miss us, but when Sora woke back up again—not long before I met you—they did start to remember…"

Sora was equally chagrined. "We almost got grounded within an inch of our lives for being gone so long, but King Mickey and Donald and Goofy stayed long enough to talk to our parents. They know the truth now about the Darkness and keyblades, but everyone else thinks Riku and I ran away from home and we have to repeat a grade!" He flopped dramatically at just the right angle to drop his head against Riku's leg, and Kairi giggled as Riku shoved with no real ire at Sora's shoulders. "I didn't even get to enjoy skipping school, I was asleep for most of it!"

Riku opened his mouth, paused, then swallowed down whatever automatic tease had created a bad taste in his mouth, covering the hesitation with a final half-hearted push at Sora's deliberate dead weight. "Your dreams were pretty good, though, I bet."

Sora was at the wrong angle to see Riku's face, and he smiled reminiscently. "Yeah, I guess so, what I remember was mostly just being here on the island with you guys." He sat up, expression growing more serious. "But it's still not fair, you get to be in Kairi's class now, and I'm stuck having to catch up!"

"Look at it this way, Sora," Kairi said with another fond smile, "You get an extra year before you have to start thinking about entrance exams."

Sora brightened again. "That's true!"

"Anyway," Riku said, redirecting his attention from Sora to Kaito, "None of that's really important. We're still not expected back for a while, so what happened to you?"

Abruptly sober, Kaito walked his bottle cap across his knuckles, and said with careful nonchalance, "Remember that creepy Shadow creature we ran into right before we caught up to Sora-kun?"

At Riku's nod, he continued, "Something a hell of a lot creepier than that reached across realities to use me in a revenge plot, with the side effect that Hakuba and I kept meeting alternate versions of ourselves until my ability to aim straightened back out and we could get where I actually wanted to go."

Riku paled. "That shouldn't be possible."

"I didn't want to believe it either," Saguru said, "but Kuroba's luck laughs at the idea of what 'should' be. We eventually reached the source reality and with the help of Meraud-san and another such ally, resolved the matter. At that point, with how much time had passed for us, we came to see if you were all right as soon as it was safe to try."

With the first shock wearing off, Riku's expression turned more calculating as he eyed Kaito. "Was it at all related to the nightmares you were having before?"

"In a roundabout way. It was—not a fun few weeks," Kaito admitted. "We helped a few places as we went, but I'm gonna have even more nightmares from other stuff we encountered and I don't really want to share 'em around, so… Can we leave it at 'It'd be really nice to have a safe place to decompress for a few days'?"

"Well, the islands are definitely safe, now," Sora offered. "King Mickey promised he'd send a message when anything that would need a keyblade started happening again, so… if we can give a good reason, it should be fine for you to stay for a while. Right, Riku?"

Riku nodded. "It'll have to be a good reason to explain why you guys aren't in classes yourselves, but yeah. We have a guest bedroom you could use, if we can convince my parents…"

Kaito switched the bottle cap to walk across his other hand. "I can play 'high school graduate' without even needing makeup and Hakuba already would be one if he'd stayed in England, but how close is it to a school break? It feels like it should be summer, but we left from early-June and I was aiming for a good point to catch up to you, not one-to-one correlation for the time."

"Summer break starts next week, after finals," Kairi answered. "And before Tidus moved out here, his elementary school started and ended a week before ours did..."

Sora brightened. "We could say we met you while Riku and I were gone, and that you're part of why we were able to bring Riku back home, and now you're on break and came to check on us!"

"They know that much detail of what occurred?" Saguru asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Riku answered before Sora could, looking out the treehouse doorway to the ocean, "They don't. They know we were gone and we both helped save the worlds, not… what it took to get there."

"Then just leave that part out, we can still say we met you while you were both off protecting the worlds, and came by to visit," Kaito said pointedly at Riku, and was rewarded with a faint smile of acknowledgment. "So… if we offered to last-minute tutor you both for room and board for the next week, would they be likely to go for it?"

Riku blinked. "I don't think you want to offer to tutor history, but math is pretty universal based on when I borrowed your own textbook and Sora sure needs help there…"

"Hey! ...Eheh. You need help with science, too, you've said so."

"And I don't understand it well enough to tutor Riku," Kairi admitted. "And since we all understand each other, I hope our literature work might be similar enough that I could get some essay planning help. Or if you have any tips on how to memorize things, we could all benefit from that."

"We both have good memories naturally, insofar as I've seen," Saguru noted, "but I'm certain we could assist in analysis and critical thinking, at the least."

"It's worth a try," Riku said.

Kairi nodded firmly. "You'll probably be most comfortable at Riku's, but if for some reason his parents don't go for it, you can come stay with me and my parents. There's plenty of room at home… almost too much."

"Too much?" Kaito tried to keep his voice gentle, though it didn't seem as sore a spot as it could be.

Kairi smiled with a hint of wry humor. "Perils of being the mayor's daughter: in a house built for four generations, with three people."

"Hakuba'd feel right at home, then."

"I don't recall you having visited other than Yuushi's direct route to my bedroom, Kuroba."

"I research everyone on the task force chasing Kid, you think you're an exception?" Kaito smirked and waved the bottle cap in airy dismissal. "I never bothered trying to get in, though the security level was tempting to prove I could beat." He paused. "The house, at least. Someone paranoid might have broken into your lab after Ooshima museum happened to see what evidence you thought you had, despite any definitive disproving. Maybe."

Saguru rolled his eyes with a deep sigh. "The lab has enough computers in it to be tied into the house security itself, you realize? At this point I'm not even surprised—that you tried, or that you succeeded in bypassing security measures that no sane burglar would take on. Though I admit I rather deserved it, at the time."

To Kairi and Sora, who were looking lost, he continued, "Kuroba has a part-time job that involves, mm, stymieing one of our world's equivalents of Xemnas's organization. However, in doing so he flaunts some local laws as well. I started out our acquaintanceship defending the law, and learned about the other side of things much later."

"At least you're friends now, so that's okay, right?" Sora smiled, eternally optimistic. "But do you need any help dealing with those bad guys?"

"I appreciate the offer, but it's not the kind of situation a keyblade could fix," Kaito answered before Sora could get too attached to the idea. "You've already helped, actually. The accidental trip through realities gave us a lot of information we wouldn't have been able to get at home, so I have more options than I did before."

"Though we did go through the stock of elixirs you shared with us, unfortunately," Saguru added. "I don't suppose you have any crystal shards leftover from the adventure and a moogle to trade with?"

Sora brightened further. "I gave the Moogle Shop at the docks all my extra materials on our way home, because we didn't need them anymore but it seemed too bad to throw it away. And I buried my extra munny here on this island as pirate treasure so Mom and Dad wouldn't worry where it all came from, so we can dig some up to pay for the synthesis!"

"You mean we," Riku corrected, grabbing Sora for a noogie and ignoring the squawk of protest, "buried the extra munny we agreed to split three ways between us, in ten different treasure spots because you'd fought so many Heartless and Nobodies by the time we caught up to you it was ludicrous."

"No it wasn't, it was—Wait, what does ludicrous mean again?"

Kairi smothered a laugh under her hand. "Only you, Sora."

"What?"

At the docks, a hologram of a white, fuzzy creature that looked like a stuffed animal greeted Sora with enthusiasm and tolerated being introduced to the rest of them as Mocchi. When Sora explained their errand, the moogle pulled up a holographic screen with a list of materials on one tab and a list of recipes on the other.

"That's… a lot," Kaito admitted, half-distracted by wanting a chance to reverse engineer the screen itself because it was an interactive holographic interface, come on, but he settled on letting Sora and Riku tag-team explanations of what different options they had.

The stash of materials Sora had donated was sufficient for a number of healing vials of various strengths, but Kaito's attention was arrested by the deep blue color of one of the gemstones displayed on the elixir recipe list. "This may be a weird question, but do you do custom requests?"

Mocchi looked, insofar as they appeared to have expressions, intrigued. "No one's asked that for a long time. No guarantees, but what did you have in mind?"

Kaito dug through his bag for the large blueish gem he'd kept from way back when they'd left the Mutou's. "I actually have this shiny I'd been thinking about modifying, but you could probably do it better given what else you can do with this stuff. I'd like to make it darker blue like the stones we were just using up and with a certain cut surface, I guess more like the biggest gem-crystals…"

"Would a reference picture help?" Saguru interrupted with a smirk, holding up his phone.

Kaito blinked. "I was about to wish for one, but why do you have a picture of the Hope? We haven't had internet for ages."

Saguru flicked through his phone for a moment, then held it out for Mocchi to examine a surprisingly accurate-to-color picture of the Hope Diamond in its setting. "After our illuminating discussion with Kudou-kun, I spent some of our downtime week reviewing all my past research into the subject. I habitually save research for offline use in case of network lapses, and here we are."

"No complaints here." Kaito refocused on Mocchi. "So anyway, I want to make a replica of the gem in that setting. I can sketch the right dimensions easily and the color there is perfect. Is your equipment able to do that, with the right materials?"

Mocchi made a thoughtful noise. "It would be expensive on top of most of the materials you have left, because it would take a few days' work to be sure it would be completely accurate—you want an exact replica, yes?"

"Yes," Kaito replied, because to say 'if you can' at this point would be insulting and it would need to be perfect to do any good. "Red luminescence under ultraviolet light would be ideal, and also the setting, but neither is a dealbreaker." If he ended up having to destroy it completely, no fake would fool scientific analysis forever, and the last news out of the Smithsonian had been about its unusual display without a setting at all, but it paid to prepare for as many eventualities as possible.

The moogle's hologram bobbed their head decisively and named a price that sounded reasonable based on Kaito's best guess at currency conversion and what he was asking for. The others didn't balk either, so he'd trust that it was reasonable.

After a brief negotiation of how to get the picture off Saguru's phone into the shop computers (Wi-fi was weirdly similar across modern tech-level worlds, apparently) and an even briefer negotiation of payment timing, Mocchi waited for Kaito to sketch the gem and setting dimensions directly into the holographic interface and then sent them off with the instruction to return in four days to collect the synthesized gem.

"So," Kairi asked as they walked together from the docks to the town proper, her arms linked with Sora and Riku on either side, "why do you want a gem like that? It's pretty, but..."

"If some of the intel we picked up on our trip is accurate, that gem in the pictures is what I've been looking for in my side-job to keep it out of worse people's hands."

Riku halted in surprise, stumbling as Kairi and Sora's momentum dragged him further forward. "You found your quest target? You'll be able to retire?"

Kaito bounced on his toes, grinning. "That's the plan, if it turns out right."

Two years of being Kid didn't compare to Dad's ten, but it wasn't like Kaito was going to stop sending notices immediately, and Dad had already won FISM and started his international career before he chose to become Kid. Kaito had the rest of his life to get to. "We encountered an alternative, but a lot more was different in that place compared to the one with the Hope Diamond."

Riku's answering smile was pure delighted relief as he resumed walking. "I hope you're right. You deserve to be done with all of that."

"There's still more to do after"—Dragging Dad's killers kicking and screaming out of their smug untouchability into justice, for a start— "but it will be a huge step, so it's something to look forward to."

"On both our parts," Saguru agreed. "And we have some leads for the other considerations, as well, which is rather a relief. A good outcome for everything it took to reach this point."

"So you'll be able to stop the bad guys?" Sora asked.

"Those, and maybe more besides. It's the other half of the plan, it's just going to take a lot longer."

"That's great! But be sure to remember to have fun sometimes, too. Having Donald and Goofy to cheer me up helped me keep going until we found Riku and Kairi again." Sora grinned again. "We can help with that while you're here, but when you go home, you'll have to do it yourselves."

Kaito snickered. "We'll do our best, promise."

Kairi parted ways with their group at the entrance to Riku and Sora's neighborhood, heading up a hill to her family's house while Sora tagged along to introduce Kaito and Saguru to Riku's parents. Sora had the best puppy-dog eyes of anyone over six that Kaito'd ever seen, so it could only help their cause.

Riku's parents were pleasant, middle-aged, and understandably surprised by their son bringing home two strangers. Even more surprised when told that two teenagers previously unmentioned were involved in the absurd adventures of the past year, but Riku and Sora's earnest pleading—and promises to study without complaints until their exams were over—won the adults over in the end.

By that point, Sora was due at his own house for dinner. He reluctantly headed home, promising to be back right after breakfast for their planned study session, while Riku led Kaito and Saguru on a brief house tour that ended with the guest bedroom.

Kaito took one look at the room and couldn't resist turning to Saguru with a wide grin. "They were roommates! And there was only one bed!"

Saguru snorted as he set his bag on the low, wide dresser across the room from the closet. "Of course you'd joke about the tropes. I'd ask if there's a corner of the internet you haven't explored, but I expect I already know the answer."

"I've wandered through a lot of it, except the bits I knew from outside context that I'd regret looking into." Which basically amounted to the gross and the creepy-weird. Fanfiction was totally fair game, though Kaito drew the line at reading in the Kid fandom because it was older than he was, and felt weirdly narcissistic. Except by accident when an Arséne Lupin story had had a surprise cameo of an expy for Kid and the dialogue had been off enough to be jarring. "What's your excuse?"

"Sherlock Holmes fanfiction is an official genre that has won awards; the unofficial is hardly a significant step further, and sometimes better-written."

"I still can't believe you're both my age and crammed in time to have read and watched and done so much and banter it at each other. The bed is okay, though?" Riku added from behind them, voice a shade anxious over the accommodations.

Saguru smiled at him. "It's more than enough; far better than our arrangements for the past week. ...As for the other, we spent a great deal of time with primarily ourselves for entertainment, while you had Sora-san and Kairi-san with you, ne?"

He flexed his left hand so subtly Riku didn't seem to notice, but enforced bedrest would definitely have been the perfect time for loads of low-focus input, like fiction reading.

"Yeah, I guess," Riku allowed, interrupting Kaito's train of thought. "And I've seen Kaito-kun's reading speed, too. Anyway, I know you told mom that you ate before finding us in town, but you might as well sit with us for dinner. They'll probably want to know more about how we met, even if not all the details."

Saguru turned to Kaito. "How many stories can you tell smoothly that leave out Yuushi's change of appearance and won't be panic-inducing for a parent to hear?"

"Offhand, at least four—three using actual events we went through after I met him, one made up completely to integrate Sora-kun and you both without the impending fight for our lives. If I tell that one, we'll just have to make sure Sora-kun gets the details to corroborate it later if asked."

Riku snickered. "Why am I even surprised?"

Saguru answered without hesitation, "You don't think like an entertainer who creates cover stories on a ridiculous basis and has multiple contingency plans as a matter of course."

"Hey!—Eh, no, I'll admit to that one, I just combine it with improv."

"I'd certainly hope so, I can cite my sources."

"Or just let them watch you banter," Riku said in amusement. "That'll work too."

"It'll be a combination, verbal tap-dancing is all about balance and redirection." Kaito let his bag drop on the other side of the bed from the dresser, then paused as he took in the pictures hanging above the bed's headboard. The center picture showed four people: Riku's parents about a decade younger than they were now, a hand each on the shoulders of a sitting pre-teen girl, who in turn held a young Riku beaming for the camera. "You have a sister? Is she in college?"

He turned his head just in time to see Riku slouch against the doorframe, hands shoved in his pockets. "...Had. She died the year after that picture was taken."

Kaito winced, biting back a curse. The age difference had looked right, but his luck was clearly still in the negative. "Sorry."

"Our condolences for your loss," Saguru murmured.

"It was a long time ago." Riku sighed and offered a smile that didn't fully reach his eyes. "She's why I wanted to be stronger—stronger than I thought I could get in this tiny beach town."

"A worthy motivation. Sora-san in particular seems liable to get into trouble on his own…"

Riku chuckled softly. "Oh, he does. But he followed my lead, too, especially before all of last year happened. And Mihoko-nee always said she'd be out in the stars to watch me, and I half-dreamed about finding her somewhere far away. If the Darkness hadn't come when it did, I would have dragged Sora and Kairi out on a ridiculous raft trying to reach anywhere else but here."

"Things have worked out for the better, then, since you not only got stronger but you made it back home in one piece. " Kaito smiled at Riku. "Everyone is happy about that, including me."

"Yeah." Riku straightened, answering Kaito's smile with a more true one. "I know what I can do now… and it won't stop me from trying, but Sora and Kairi don't need me to protect them. They can protect themselves." He paused, expression turning rueful. "If I tell it to myself often enough I might eventually believe it."

Kaito squeezed his shoulder. "Protectiveness doesn't go away overnight, and it's a positive trait, it just needs balance."

"As in all things," Saguru observed. "Now, judging by the sudden new addition to the other delicious smells in the house, I expect your mother is about to summon us for dinner…"

"Riku! Time to eat!"

"Do you ever get tired of being right?" Riku asked as he led the way downstairs again.

"Would you?"

"Only if I didn't like the answer, I guess."

"Precisely."

After dinner, Riku's parents let them retreat to Riku's room to entertain themselves for the rest of the evening, with the admonition to not stay up too late. Kaito lit up at the sight of a pair of bean bags near a bookcase and promptly flopped in the nearest one, letting his cheek rest against the familiar texture. He'd dragged one into the Kid lair not long after finding the room, because normal chairs were nowhere near as good for stretching out in and pillows had no back support. "You have the best furniture."

"Thanks." Riku sat on the floor, resting an arm on his bent knee, while Saguru took advantage of the second beanbag. "So. We'll have to do a lot of studying tomorrow but not all day, and finals days are shorter than usual so we'll have time after school gets out… Is there a point you want to try dealing with what you did about Axel-san? Sora hasn't it brought it up since we got back, but now that you're here… I'd like to see him, too."

Kaito hummed thoughtfully. "Let's try tomorrow, it'll give us more time to recover before seeing any adults. We can go to your hangout island for more privacy."

"You're certain you'll have the spare energy for that so soon?" Saguru asked in the same terrifyingly mild tone he'd used to talk down Kurou.

In deference to that tone, Kaito took long enough to consider it honestly. "...A good night's sleep and enough calories to counter it, and I should be fine."

"Then I suppose we can try. Preferably with a picnic basket packed for half a dozen people or more, so that we don't use up the potions before we even make it home."

Riku nodded, pulling out his phone to send a text. "Sora, Kairi, and I can manage that between us. For tonight, though… I have a chessboard, or some other games that work with three players."

"Chess'd probably go way too late if we swapped after a round. Cards?" Kaito suggested.

"I categorically refuse to play poker with Kuroba without using a new, sealed deck, so do you have a preferred game, Yuushi?" Saguru smirked at Kaito's automatic grumble, but at this point Kaito had to put effort into not counting cards, so it wasn't like the caveat was unreasonable.

Riku suggested Millionaire, which had the advantage of relatively short rounds that could be played indefinitely. As Riku shuffled, Saguru tucked his glasses into his coat so casually Kaito opted not to draw attention to it. Riku hesitated, then seemed to make the same decision and moved on to dealing instead.

They played companionably until Saguru finally pinched his nose bridge with a regretful sigh. "While I hate to interrupt an enjoyable evening, I'm afraid it's been a long day and I should sleep."

Riku set down the deck and leaned back on his hands. "Is it tiring to keep up your shields? Solomon-san said you'd still need practice and time to be better, right?"

Once Saguru had the glasses on again, he visibly relaxed. "My tolerance is still far lower than I'd like, particularly if I'm tired… I'll continue those efforts during our stay, but for tonight I look forward to a proper mattress."

Kaito stomped on a swell of guilt as Saguru headed down the hall, then did it again when Riku turned to him with a concerned look and asked in an undertone, "Is he really okay?"

"...I'd say he's got better coping mechanisms than either of us, so it's as good as you could expect for having spent a decade in a dark room and then getting shoved under full-on stage lighting without warning." Kaito sighed. "In other words, it sucks, but he says he's dealing and I haven't seen anything overt to contradict it, so I'm trusting his judgment."

"That's something, I guess." Riku chewed his bottom lip for a moment. "Are you really okay? I know you said you didn't want to talk about the details this afternoon, but if you've been worried about him I doubt you've been wanting to talk to him about… whatever else happened to you. And that means you aren't talking to anyone."

I miss when you were too wrapped up in your own issues to be this perceptive about mine.

:He's a good friend,: Méraud murmured out of nowhere. :While I understand why you don't wish to disturb him, I recall you were told that doing so leaves you vulnerable in other ways.:

What if I talk to you instead? Kaito countered, without much optimism.

:I'm not human, young one. I can listen, if that's all you want, but there's a great deal about the human psyche I don't understand, and I certainly can't advise you from a human perspective.:

Kaito slumped back in the beanbag to glare up at the ceiling rather than Riku. "Méraud is bugging me about that too, just so you know. I don't have an answer yet, but trust me. You really don't want to know."

Riku made a non-committal noise, then fell silent. Kaito resisted the temptation to grouch further at Méraud, because she was right. He just hated that she was right.

"What about a letter?"

Kaito lifted his head in surprise. "A letter?"

"Yeah. I mean… the message in a bottle that Kairi set adrift was written to Sora, but I don't know that she expected him to ever be able to read it. The fact that we did find it is just one of the weirdly lucky things that happen around Sora all the time." Riku shrugged. "You could write a letter to me, or to Saguru, or anyone you wanted, without us actually seeing it."

"...Huh. I'll think about it. It's not a bad idea."

:It's a good place for you to start,: Méraud commented, but she still sounded doubtful. :It doesn't address the same concern as if you only spoke to me, however. What of someone back home, since it won't be so long before that's possible?:

...Not Mom, she worries enough about me as it is. I'm going to owe Aoko a long conversation when we get home. Multiple, even. Would it satisfy you if I write out my thoughts while I figure out what the hell I can say in a way that won't get me repeatedly brained with a mop?

:I think that's a fine idea.: She felt as amused as she did approving, but at least it was better than nothing.

Kaito blinked back to reality to find Riku watching him patiently. "Méraud again? I'm glad you'll still have someone with common sense poking at you when you get back home."

"Hakuba doesn't count?"

"Are you joking? He's as bad as you are."

"Fine, fine," Kaito waved a hand in acknowledgement. They had both dived through weird dark portals and survived, but that didn't speak well to their senses of self-preservation.

"Anyway. Do you want to play a little more while you think?"

"Sounds great." Kaito smirked. "Ever heard of Speed?"

Riku grinned back. "You're on."

Endnote: Mocchi's name is not a typo, and is borrowed from one of the Moogles in FF XI's Mognet sidequest just like the other KH II Moogle shop owner names.

Riku's sister is 'beautiful star child', to join the elemental naming themes. If you recognize the brief allusion to her in Promenade, well done.

Also of note: I am ignoring everything past Kingdom Hearts II and Scroll of the Dark Knight beyond what it amuses me to include, because that was the full extent of canon when I started and Nomura and Gosho are incapable of concluding their respective franchises.