Chapter 79: No Need to get Frantic

There was only one problem about disappearing so suddenly from Castle Oblivion. Riku had been sitting in a chair, and, upon arriving in Hollow Bastion, there was suddenly no chair for him to be sitting in. He ended up landing rather roughly on his butt.

"Ow!" he exclaimed.

Namine laughed. "That's what you get for corridoring away so suddenly!"

"No, no, I hit my hand!" he gasped, doubling over slightly from the pain. He bit his lip, trying to avoid crying out.

"Is… everything okay?" Leon said, coming out of the kitchen. Riku and Namine had arrived in the dining room, not far from the table.

"Well, no, not really," Namine said quickly. "Sorry we're back so soon! But Riku got hurt, and it's kind of bad, and there was nothing we could really do with it—"

"How bad?" Leon asked, cutting her off.

Riku held his hand up for Leon to see. Leon blanched.

"I'll go get Aerith," he said. He was pretty calm, all things considered, though he took the stairs two at a time.

"Geez," Riku laughed, though it was through clenched teeth. "No need to get all frantic."

"Well you're the one who corridored us right into the middle of Aerith's house!" Namine said.

"Like you're any better!"

She made a face.

"I didn't know where I was going, then," she argued, folding her arms over her chest. "Now that I know, I would have been polite enough to corridor us outside of her house and then used the front door. Though actually, since this was kind of an emergency, maybe I would have just corridored straight into her house."

"Well…!" Riku began, and then frowned. "You do realize corridor isn't a verb, right?" he asked in disbelief, his pain momentarily forgotten. "You just used it as a verb like… three times."

"So? Does it honestly—"

She never got the chance to finish. Leon returned, then, with Aerith in tow. Immediately she knelt down next to Riku, eyes wide at the sight of his hand.

"Goodness!" she exclaimed. "What did you do!?"

He merely shrugged. "Got stepped on," he replied as Aerith took his hand and started examining it. She was gentle, but certain, as if she had done this plenty of times before. He tried not to pay attention to how much it hurt.

"Do we even really want to know what happened?" Leon asked, fetching something from the closet.

"A Larxene Replica was just being absolutely cruel," Riku said, casually. "Nothing new."

"Larxene?"

Riku opened his mouth to reply, but Namine beat him to it:

"She's a jerk," she said quickly, throwing a worried glance at Riku. "And we should probably just leave it at that." After a second, she added, with a laugh that was definitely forced: "Riku might sit here insulting her for an hour if we let him."

Riku turned to her, confused. She stared back at him, worry in her eyes. He swallowed, somehow understanding what exactly was on her mind. She was thinking about the conversation they had had just minutes ago.

She didn't want him to talk anymore about it.

Whether it was because she didn't like the thought of how cruel Larxene was as much as he didn't, or… something else… he wasn't sure.

But her eyes were begging him not to say anything.

A smile tugged the corners of his mouth.

She was worried about him.

'She's only worried about me, after all, how can I be annoyed at that?'

He winced, as flashes of a fragmented memory flickered through him for a moment. He didn't quite understand it; the memory was vague. But Namine was there, and he was happy—

And scared.

And hurt.

"Did I- did I do something wrong?" he stammered, confused. She didn't reply. Instead, she rose to her feet and turned away from him.

The memory went fuzzy for a moment, then it cleared.

She turned back to him, almost furious. "Why!" she demanded. "WHY!"

He merely stared at her, too hurt and confused to come up with an appropriate response. There was something—something about what she had just said—!

"THERE you are!" someone else called.

And then that someone else laughed a familiar and cruel laugh—

He inhaled sharply and squeezed his eyes shut, doing his best to push the memory and the pain aside.

Not now! he told himself firmly. I am not going to do this now!

"Sorry, I know it hurts," Aerith told him, not even looking up from his hand, face tight with concentration. "You'll just have to give me a minute. And—it's going to hurt more, for a second. I need to get your bones back in place."

"I'm fine," Riku assured her.

"Okay, well… here goes."

Riku bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation, though he still ended up crying out in shock. The sharpness of the pain started to dull, though, as healing magic worked its way through his hand. He could feel his fingers knitting themselves back together, which was… a weird feeling, but…

"Leon?" Aerith asked. Riku opened his eyes, and was surprised to see Leon already passing a wet rag into Aerith's hand, like he'd been anticipating this. Riku remained as still as he could while Aerith washed his hand of blood. It marveled him out gentle she was.

Once his hand was clean, Aerith traded Leon the dirty rag for a roll of bandages. Leon left to go deal with the rag. Aerith started bandaging Riku's fingers.

"Now listen," Aerith told him, firmly. "I don't want you using this hand at all for a while, got it?"

He nodded.

"That means no fighting—"

"I can fight left-handed," Riku interrupted.

Aerith stared at him for a moment, eyebrows raised. "Well…" she said slowly. Then she shook her head. "It doesn't matter. No fighting. Namine? Hold him to that, will you?"

Namine merely nodded back.

Aerith nodded, satisfied. "And Riku," she continued, turning back to him. "You should come back in a few days so I can check on your hand, got it? Actually—"

"Namine?" Riku asked, ignoring Aerith. Namine was trembling, her eyes squeezed shut, face contorted in pain. One of her hands was clenched into a tight fist by her side, while the other was hovering inches away from her head, as if she was thinking about clutching it too.

"Namine?" he asked, quietly, reaching out to her.

She screamed.

He winced.

Aerith gasped in shock, startled. Leon yelped in surprise from the kitchen. Riku moved closer to Namine, protectively wrapping his arms around her, as if it would actually do any good.

"What the—" Leon began.

"Meltdown!" Riku replied, bitterly, before Leon could finish. He cast a rather hurt glare over his shoulder, tears starting to form in his eyes. He quickly closed his eyes, fighting them back, and then turned to Namine again.

"Is there anything we can do?" Aerith asked.

"No!" Riku snapped. "There's- there's no way to stop it! The meltdowns, they- they don't- there's no way to stop them! And- And I-"

Namine whimpered slightly. Riku stopped his ranting rather suddenly and repositioned himself slightly. She buried her face in his chest, seeming to calm down a bit. He glanced down at her, and then held her closer to him, though it was a bit hard due to the fact his right hand still wasn't working normally.

They sat there for a moment in a silence that was only disrupted by Namine's occasional sob. Then, very quietly, Riku whispered:

"We should go."

"You can't," Aerith said, firmly. "I'm not done with your hand yet."

He turned to her, clearly upset. "Well what else am I supposed to do?" he demanded harshly. "There's nothing I can do but wait it out with her, and I—!"

Aerith placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"Riku," she said, quietly, calmly. "Take her upstairs and put her in one of the beds; she needs rest, right? Then you'll sit by her and comfort her, I'll finish bandaging your hand, and it'll all turn out okay."

He stared.

"Go on," Aerith urged. "The room you stayed in last night is still empty."

Slowly, he nodded. He picked Namine up, though with some difficulty. He grimaced.

"Hey," he whispered. "Do you think you could hold onto me? I'm not sure if I can…"

He didn't need to finish. Namine managed to hear him and wrapped an arm around his neck.

"Thank you."

She nodded.

"Actually, Riku!" Aerith called as he started up the stairs. "You probably shouldn't- your hand-" she stopped, and then sighed.

"Not worth it?" Leon asked.

She shook her head. "Nope."