Chapter 22: Missed You
Namine groaned, sitting up and rubbing her head, as if it still hurt.
Riku noticed she was awake, and brightened instantly. But his smile fell when he noticed she was still in pain.
"How's your head?" he asked quietly.
"It still hurts… but what else can I expect?" she replied, and then paused. She was silent for a moment, before turning to him in shock. "Riku!"
He laughed. "Who else did you think you were talking to?"
"I knew it was you, I just didn't- I mean, I had just gotten used to you not being there that- though… I guess I should have known after what Joseph said- but-" she frowned, cheeks red with embarrassment. "Stop laughing at me!"
"I'm not laughing at you!" Riku replied, though he had been laughing. He was now currently trying to stop laughing, and failing at it, so he only started laughing harder.
"Shut up!" Namine laughed, punching him lightly in the shoulder.
This only caused him to laugh harder, and soon she was laughing too.
"See," Riku said after a moment, still laughing. "I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you."
"That's the lamest excuse ever…" Namine said, also still laughing.
Their laughter died down after a while, and they sat in silence for a bit, both grinning.
"So… umm… how long was I out?" Namine asked after a moment, breaking the silence.
Riku shrugged. "I'm not sure how long you were here before I got here…" he muttered.
"Okay… I'll rephrase the question then. How long have you been here?"
"Three hours," Riku replied, rather quickly.
"And you've been sitting here the entire time?"
He nodded.
She laughed slightly. "Riku, you didn't have to-" she began, but stopped as he pulled her into a hug.
He sighed, happily.
"I missed you," he whispered.
Namine was silent for a moment, still slightly shocked by the randomness of this. After a moment she wrapped her arms around him. "I missed you, too," she replied.
"I'm sorry," Riku muttered. "I didn't expect it to take this long."
Namine laughed slightly. "Don't apologize. You were only doing what you thought best."
They pulled apart after a moment.
"I'm really glad you're here," Riku said. A smile grew on his face. "I thought it was going to be a while before I saw you again. Though, Sora was insisting I went home and talked to you…"
Namine laughed. "He did?"
Riku nodded. "Yeah. I missed you a lot. I couldn't really focus… 'cause I was thinking about how much I missed you." His voice was quiet as he said this, and Namine couldn't help but smile.
"I think Sora was getting sick of having to warn me when I had Heartless sneaking up on me," Riku continued.
"Wait, Sora's here?" Namine asked.
"Well, yeah."
"Why haven't you two come home, then?"
Riku shifted uncomfortably. "Well… Sora doesn't want to go home until he has his darkness all dealt with, and I got wrapped up in other things…"
Namine sighed.
"Alright, fair," she said, even if she didn't like it or fully understand it. "Sora's okay, isn't he?"
"Like I said, struggling with the darkness, but otherwise, fine, yeah," Riku said. "How about you? How've you been?"
Namine paused, surprised by the question, even though she probably shouldn't be. "Um. I've been good," she answered. "A bit bored, though. The Islands aren't nearly exciting without you or Sora around… Oh!" Realization passed through her face. "Kairi! I left Kairi on the Islands!"
For some reason, Riku's face got a little unsettled. Namine paid it no mind.
"Is there any chance I can go get her now?" Namine asked.
"Well… I don't know…" Riku began. Getting Kairi would be smart, he guessed, but Sora…
"What do you mean you don't know?" Namine demanded. "Look, I'll just take five minutes right now and—" She moved to get out of her bed, but the moment she tried to stand up she felt incredibly woozy. The memory meltdown must've taken a lot out of her. She sat back down.
"Maybe you should rest, for now," Riku said, worry darkening his tone. "We'll, uh… we'll deal with getting Kairi later."
Namine glared, but didn't argue.
"How many memory meltdowns have you even had?" Riku asked
"Um, two…?" Namine replied slowly, sounding unsure. "Three if you include this one."
"That doesn't sound good…" Riku muttered.
Namine swallowed. "What... What about you?" she asked quickly to change the subject. "How have you been?"
"Fine… more or less…" Riku replied.
Namine frowned.
"Life's been hectic, that's all," Riku quickly explained. "I mean, all I was doing was searching for Sora, and then next thing I know I've been roped into leading a Rebellion."
"Rebellion?"
"Saix took charge of the Replica Program, and he's not very nice," Riku explained. "No one seems to like him. I don't like him much, and I've never met him."
"He's a jerkface!" someone shouted.
They both turned. Joseph was standing in the doorway.
"What?" Joseph asked. "He is! He's tried to kill me like… forty times already! And he's killed Roxas, and Xion, and all the rest of my friends. Well, not all my friends, but all my old friends. And he forced Zexion Alpha to Deactivate all his friends and-"
"Joseph!" Riku said, rather loudly, interrupting him. "You talk too much!"
"Oh! Sorry, sir," Joseph replied with a grin. "I was worried about Namine, after she just collapsed like that. I wanted to see if she's okay, and she is, obviously." He paused for a second, glancing between the two of them. Namine was looking at him with a confused look on her face, and Riku was glaring, though that wasn't unusual. However, considering the time…
"You two want be left alone, don't you?" he asked, grin widening.
They didn't say anything, but the look on their faces told him all he needed to know. Well, the look on Riku's face. He hadn't been around Namine long enough to be able to read her facial expressions. However, Riku's glare softened, and that was a good enough answer for him.
"Right! I'm going to go get you some ice cream," Joseph said, turning around and walking out.
"I remember you!" Namine gasped suddenly. "You're that kid from Twilight Town! You gave us those WINNER sticks to get ice cream because Riku was out of munny because he wasted it all on potion."
"Seriously?" Riku asked, turning to her. "Why are you bringing that up!"
Joseph burst out laughing.
"Shut up!" Riku snapped, though he only sounded slightly annoyed.
Joseph only kept laughing. "I'm going to go get the ice cream now," he said, opening a dark corridor.
"Won't 29 complain about you going alone?" Riku asked.
Joseph shrugged. "Who's going to tell on me?" he replied with a cocky grin. "Besides, I'll be right back."
Riku groaned as soon as Joseph had left. "He's never going to leave me alone now. Never."
"Sorry…" Namine muttered.
"No! It's not your fault," Riku laughed. "He's a sweet kid, really. Just really annoying at times."
Namine smiled. "Well, I've got some questions to ask you now, if you'd rather talk about that."
"Honestly, I don't care what we talk about," Riku replied, smiling.
"Back!" Joseph called, stepping out of a dark corridor. "Told you I wouldn't take long!" He laughed, and then handed them each an ice cream. "There you go, sir," he said, smiling at Riku. "Two ice creams, as promised, and I'll leave you alone." He grinned and then walked out.
Riku sighed, taking a bite of his ice cream, and then turned to Namine. "What was it you wanted to ask me?" he sighed.
Namine frowned. "Well… it's only a few questions," she muttered, sounding as if she was sorry. "I only want to know a few things… I'll learn the rest through experience, I guess."
Riku frowned at this, confused. He was silent for a moment, before he asked: "Did I say something? You sound nervous."
She turned away. "I-I'm sorry. I guess I'm still a bit out of it. I just- I-"
"Hey," Riku said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Don't apologize, alright? Ask me whatever you want to ask me. If you don't want to ask me anything anymore… then… talk about whatever you feel like talking about." He moved his hand from her shoulder and put it under her chin, gently tilting her face up so he could look her in the eye. "I just want to talk," he said with a smile. "I don't care what about."
Slowly, Namine smiled, too. "For starters," she laughed quietly. "You're ice cream's melting."
"And yours isn't?" Riku replied, pulling his hand away and then setting about on fixing his ice cream problem.
Namine laughed and did the same.
They sat in silence for a moment, focusing on eating the melting ice cream.
"Does Joseph get ice cream every day?" Namine asked after a moment.
Riku let out a small sigh of relief. She sounded better, though he had absolutely no idea what she was freaking out before. "Not every day," he replied. "I'm sure he'd love to get ice cream every day, though. However, 29 insists someone go with him, for safety purposes, and most of the time everyone's too busy to take him."
"Safety purposes?"
"He's among the Replicas Saix wants dead more than the rest," Riku explained.
"And who's 29?" Namine asked.
"The Vexen Replica who's in charge of taking care of Joseph. He's very protective of Joseph, but after what Saix has done…"
"What did he do?"
Riku winced. "You haven't been around long enough to notice, I guess. But don't you think it's a bit odd that Joseph is the only Replica at that age?"
"Yeah… I guess so…" Namine replied. "That does seem strange."
"There used to be more like him," Riku explained, voice quiet. It was a touchy subject. "Saix, however, deemed them worthless because they couldn't fight or anything. They were among the first destroyed at the Restart."
Namine grimaced.
"No one really likes to talk about it…" Riku muttered.
"Okay… so… to change the subject, what's Deactivating?" Namine asked. "Or… is that something that no one likes to talk about either?"
"It's a good thing you're asking me these questions," Riku laughed. "I don't really mind talking about these things. But you're right, no one does like to talk about it. I don't even like the idea myself." He sighed. "Deactivation is the nice way of killing a Replica. You turn their brain off so they can no longer function."
"Not nice," Namine said with a frown. "Can this happen to every Replica?"
"Well… everyone except us, it seems," he replied with a wry grin. "I'm not in this program, so none of this effects me, really. And you're not catalogued. Not much can be done to an un-catalogued Replica."
"That's good," Namine laughed, and then paused. "Right? That is good?"
Riku nodded. "Very good," he said. "I can't imagine what I would do if you were Deactivated…" His face fell at just the thought of it.
"Well, it sounds like we don't need to worry about it," Namine assured him. "So don't bother trying to imagine it."
Riku laughed. "Yeah, of course."
They were silent for a moment.
"Can I ask you something?" Riku asked.
Namine nodded.
"How did you get here, anyway?"
Namine laughed, a bit nervously. "It's a funny story, actually," she said. "A Vexen Replica showed up and tried to kidnap me. I guess Saix sent him…? But I don't know. Anyway, Kairi held him off while I escaped, and after running through dark corridors for a while, Axel came to my rescue, and he sent me here."
"Ohh," Riku said.
He didn't seem totally interested, and there was a dumb smile on his face.
"What's that look for?" Namine asked.
"You don't know how happy I am to see you. Honestly."
"I'm sure I can imagine what it feels like," Namine told him. "I'm happy to see you, too, don't forget."
Riku's smile slowly changed to a grin.
"Umm… I'm sorry if I'm interrupting…" a very tentative voice called.
They both looked up. Sora was standing in the doorway, and he looked rather worried.
"Riku… there's a slight problem…" Sora said.
Riku frowned. "Where's Joseph? He's usually the one to come and get me… but only because he insists." He said most of this just to explain to Namine, but the question was for Sora.
"That's just it…" Sora muttered.