Chapter 61: Bored Darkness

Riku carefully laid her down on her bed so she could sleep. He sat in his usual chair next to her and held her hand as she slept.

Her sleep wasn't peaceful at all, though. She tossed and turned, and would often wake up in a fit. Each time this happened, Riku would gently force her to lie back down, squeeze her hand, and tell her that everything was alright. And each time his words would soothe her and she would fall asleep again.

This is as bad as the last time there was meltdown like this… he thought wearily.

And she pushed through THAT one, too…

I wonder if she gets rest sooner, will it still be this bad?

At this she started to sit up again, a strangled sentence forcing its way out of her mouth. He gently pushed her back down, only to have her resist. He quickly pulled his hand away, and she sat up the rest of the way and turned to him with frantic eyes.

"Riku- I-I'm sorry!" she gasped. "I didn't realize-" she broke off, clutching her head. "It hurts! Oh gosh it hurts! I can't- I- I can't-"

Riku frowned, realizing that she probably wasn't fully awake yet. She had been rambling like this off and on, every time that she would wake up- no matter how briefly.

"Hey," Riku said, stopping her. "It's okay! You need to go back to sleep, it's all okay-"

"No! It's not okay!" she shouted. "It hurts! I didn't know it would- I didn't mean to hurt you!"

"Hurt me?" Riku asked slowly, officially confused. "What in the Worlds are you talking about?"

"Here, I'll- I'll show you," Namine said, reaching for her sketchbook.

Riku grabbed her hands, stopping her. "Not now," he told her calmly. "Now, you should go back to sleep."

She turned to him, tears in her eyes. "But I-"

"No," he said softly. "Later. You can explain later alright? Right now you can sleep." He wiped the tears from her eyes and ran a hand through her hair.

She broke down into sobs, then. Riku grimaced, wondering if it was because of anything said. He quickly pulled her into a hug, trying to comfort her.

"Don't cry," he whispered. "I don't like it when you cry."

"But- Riku-" she sobbed. "I'm- I'm sorry!"

"Stop apologizing," he said quietly. "Whatever it is that you're so worried about, you don't have to apologize for it. I'm not mad at you. If I was, I would understand what you were talking about."

"But Riku!"

He leaned closer and whispered softly in her ear: "I'm not mad at you. Stop worrying about it."

She was silent for a moment, before she nodded. He let go of her, and she slowly laid back down and fell asleep again. He smiled slightly and squeezed her hand.

xxx

"That may not have been your brightest idea, you realize?"

Sora stopped and turned, not at all surprised to find his Shadow sitting on a nearby wall. He was, however, slightly surprised to see that his Shadow was polishing his blade. Or… cleaning it off. Sora didn't quite want to know.

They were in Halloween Town. It wasn't high on the list of Worlds Sora wanted to be in, considering this was one of the places he had lead the Heartless. However, everyone he had run into didn't seem to recognize him at all. Or, if they had recognized him, didn't realize what he had done. He counted himself lucky.

And, to top that off, the world didn't seem to be in that bad of shape. There were still a few Heartless lurking around, but nothing incredibly major. There were small Heartless, like Shadows and Search Ghosts. Nothing that was too much of a problem.

"What do you mean?" he asked his Shadow slowly.

His Shadow paused, examining his blade for a second, as if trying to determine whether or not he had actually gotten the spot he was trying to clean. "You know, deciding to go and travel the Worlds alone," he laughed finally. "Basic theory states that you would be safer in a group." He then looked up at Sora, seeming absolutely thrilled. "Not to mention the fact that you admitted yourself that you weren't sure if you would be able to survive on your own."

Sora glared. His Shadow grinned.

"Don't think that thought escaped me," he said.

"What do you want?" Sora asked, an edge creeping into his voice.

His Shadow shrugged. "Well, technically, I should be fighting you, trying to break you down and drag you back into the darkness, but…" he sighed. "Not in the mood right now. It sounds boring. So… maybe we could do something else."

"How about you leave me alone?" Sora laughed, and then turned and started off.

"Not so fast!" his Shadow called.

Sora froze. He gritted his teeth, attempted to move his feet one more time, and failed. He could feel the darkness festering in his heart, responding to his Shadow's call. Slowly, very slowly, he turned his head so he could glance at his Shadow. His Shadow had a wicked grin on his face, and his hand was clenched into a fist.

"I'll fight you if I have to," the Shadow laughed. "And if you don't cooperate, I will have to. You only get out of this by my terms." He made a sort of twirling motion with his hand and Sora spun around. He pulled his fist back towards him and Sora stumbled forward. He sighed and then unclenched his fist.

"Much better," he said.

"I wish you would stop that," Sora muttered, clutching his chest. The darkness in his heart was slowly quieting down.

"Awww! Does it make little baby Sora uncomfortable?" his Shadow taunted, and then laughed. "It's not like I can do it often, it drains my energy. Now, I've got a schedule to keep here, along with a reputation. So… I need to waste at least twenty minutes here before I can go do something else."

Sora raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

"First matter, though," his Shadow continued, banishing his blade. "We need to figure out what we're going to tell people when they ask what happened." He snapped his fingers, getting an idea. "I know! We'll tell them that we were fighting and I was a coward and ran away- wait- no! I don't want to be a coward." His eyes lit up and he pointed at Sora. "You can be the coward."

Sora slowly glared.

"Don't want to be a coward?" his Shadow sighed. "Fine. We'll just say that we were evenly matched and I got bored and left." He nodded and then grinned. "Yeah, I like that idea."

"And so what are we going to do for twenty minutes?" Sora asked.

The Shadow shrugged. "I like this world," he said. "It's dark. So we could just stay here… oh! I know! We'll walk around town so I can enjoy the darkness of it, and I'll annoy you, and you'll get mad at me, and I'll get stronger. It's perfect!"

"What if I'd rather fight you?" Sora muttered.

"And risk me actually winning!" his Shadow replied with mock surprise. "If I were you, I'd take me off on this offer, so I could live an extra day or so."

"Alright, fine," Sora said. "But I'm not going to like this."

His Shadow grinned. "Good."

xxx

The Reports of Zexion Alpha. Report 267

Namine is one special person, I have to admit. I have never seen anyone able to convince Riku to do anything. And today, I saw her do this not once, but twice. I was certain he was going to say no as to having a research session on the meltdowns, no matter what anyone said. But somehow she managed to convince him that it wasn't a half bad idea. Not only that, but she managed to soothe his anger before it even got far in forming. She managed to stop him before he and Vexen started yelling, and she also managed to stop him earlier from attacking Xigbar's Clone, now that I think about it.

There is something about her that calms Riku.

Then again, there is also the fact that he gets so angry when she is hurt or upset. I don't think I've seen him angrier than I saw him today, when the research session started heading south…

The research session.

It didn't go as well as I had hoped. We found out very little information than what we already know, and hardly any of it was useful. We need to know what triggers meltdowns, not exactly what they are. What's the point of treating the symptoms? It's the cause that needs to be treated.

And the only trigger that I can even assume from this session is one that no one is going to like.

Riku.

The only thing that seems to be in common with all the meltdowns is him. She's either near him or talking about him when one starts.

Everything points back towards him.

Even during the research session, when she calmed Riku down before he started yelling at Vexen, well, I'm not sure what happened exactly. But it seemed as if when they made eye contact, the meltdown got stronger.

But that's insane. There's no possible way that Riku could be the trigger.

Right?