Chapter 177: The Reunion

Namine was sitting on the floor, papers and pencils spread over the coffee table in front of her. She was just sort of doodling; messing around with colors, testing out the new pencils Riku'd gotten her. She'd been drawing all week, sure, but she hadn't worried too much about the colors then. She'd been more worried about… well…

But she figured she'd earned a day off. Riku was supposed to be back today anyway. Or was he supposed to be back tomorrow…? She'd lost track of time. But he was going to be back soon, and she'd done enough.

She'd done more than enough.

"Can't catch me!" Joseph giggled, jumping onto one of the nearby couches and then launching himself over the back of it.

"No fair!" Toby pouted, clambering onto the couch to follow him.

Namine chuckled to herself, grabbing a new piece of paper to sketch the scene out on. She didn't get far, though. A pair of arms slinked around her waist, and her heart skipped a beat, her breath catching in her throat.

"Riku!" she laughed, looking up at him.

He smiled, and she shifted so she could hug him back. Except once she'd turned, he picked her up, spinning her around. She giggled and clung to him, and he laughed, setting her down again.

He held her close, chin resting on her shoulder, sighing a little. She let out a long breath, resting her cheek against his arm.

"Oh, I missed you so much," Riku whispered.

"I missed you too," she mumbled.

She wanted to stay right here. Forever. In his arms.

But first…

"We should… go talk to Alpha," Namine said, pulling away from Riku. She couldn't help but smile a little. She was excited to find out what Alpha's conclusion about this experiment was.

"Wait a sec!" Riku grabbed her by the hands. "I wanna tell you something."

She looked up at him, a little startled. He was gripping her hands tightly. Grinning. He sounded so excited. Looked so happy. She couldn't help but smile with him. It'd been a while since she'd seen him this happy.

"Okay," she laughed. "What is it?"

He grinned wider, pulled her closer. His mouth hovered next to her ear, and when he spoke, he spoke so quietly that his words were almost whisked away from her.

"I have a family."

And then he pulled away, grinning still, bouncing up and down a little with his excitement. It was almost like watching Joseph talk about… well… anything.

Namine laughed, not quite understanding, but it was nice to see Riku this happy.

"What?"

"Oh, I-" He shrugged, his smile faltering a little. "I guess it sounds a little stupid. But- but y'know how they're a family, over in Hollow Bastion? Aerith and Leon and Cid and Yuffie?"

"Yeah…?"

"Aerith said there was room for more." Riku was grinning again, the happiness returned to his face. "For me. And you."

She stared, a little caught off guard, as that sunk in. But after a moment, she smiled. Riku grinned so large that she thought his face would split in two.

"That's- that's great!" she said, excited. Excited for him. Excited to see him like this.

But apparently she wasn't excited enough.

The smile fell from his face.

"It's stupid, huh?" he asked, sullenly.

"No! No, not at all, Riku!" She felt bad. Awful. It wasn't that she thought it was stupid. She thought it was great, especially if it made him so happy. It wasn't her fault she couldn't be as excited as Riku was about this. "It sounds wonderful—"

"Now you're just saying that to make me feel better."

"No, Riku, I-"

"I guess it is a little stupid," he muttered, grimacing. He was silent for a moment, but then he looked her in the eyes, a smile twitching on his lips again. "But, Namine, it's such a wonderful feeling. To finally belong somewhere. Not because you're needed, but because you're wanted."

Namine bit her lip, trying to keep smiling for him, though it'd gotten hard all of a sudden. It wasn't that it was a surprise to find he felt like this. That just didn't make it hurt any less.

Because he'd never felt wanted. She knew that. She'd been in his head. His memories.

He'd never once felt wanted. Never once felt loved. Even here—now—he stayed in Castle Oblivion out of obligation. Because he felt he was needed. Not because he felt like he was wanted.

Sure, she knew that wasn't true. That didn't change what he thought, though.

But if he'd found the love and the home he'd been craving over in Hollow Bastion, then she was more than happy for him. She was excited for him, ecstatic for him. Why couldn't he see that?

"Oh, that does sound wonderful…" she said, sighing a little.

"I hear a but…"

She just smiled, not sure what to do with him. Why'd he have to be like this all the time? She squeezed his hands, stood on tiptoe, kissed him on the cheek. He froze, looking somewhere between surprised and happy, and she giggled.

"It's wonderful," she says. "And I am more than happy for you. But, I can't exactly… I don't understand what this feels like to you. Because I don't know what that feels like. I've always belonged somewhere."

He blinked a few times, probably still a little confused from her kiss.

"Where?" he asked.

"With you."

Now she couldn't help but grin.

Riku smiled back at her, but there was a pain in his eyes. Namine started to ask him what was wrong, but next thing she knew, his arms were around her again and he was holding her close.

She hugged him back, chuckling a little. This was random, but it was fine. They were in no rush. Because—even if she was excited about the results of this experiment—for the moment they didn't have to worry about it. Or anything.

They could have this moment.

She could take some time to enjoy this feeling.

Riku was right.

Belonging somewhere was a really nice feeling.

"Oh, by the way," Riku said, letting go of her. "Aerith wants to talk to you."

Namine raised her eyebrows. "About what?"

"She didn't say."

Okay…

"Well…" Namine said. "Later. We should go see Alpha about the results of this experiment."

They'd put it off long enough.

"Okay."

xxx

"So? What's your conclusion?" Riku asked. Namine squeezed his hand, grinning at him. For some reason, she was dancing a little, like she was excited. About what, though? About the results? What could be so exciting about them?

It was a moment before Alpha spoke. Riku watched him, skeptically. Even from where he was sitting on the floor, he could see that Alpha was tense.

"We'll, of course, have to try this again," Alpha said. He looked at his desk, not at them. "One experiment is not enough to determine the accuracy of a hypothesis."

Riku turned and looked at Vexen, who was—of course—sitting in the only available chair. Vexen's lips were firmly pressed together, and his hands clasped tightly in his lap. He was tense, too.

And between that… and Namine practically bouncing up and down with her excitement… and how hesitant Alpha was to admit the results…

"…what happened while I was gone?" Riku asked, brows furrowed.

Alpha cleared his throat. His eyes were still fixed on his desk. "Namine had… exactly… nine, meltdowns," he said, forcing the words out.

Riku jumped to his feet, eyes wide. "N- ni- ni—n-nine?" he stammered. He looked at Namine, who didn't protest, just shrugged. He turned to Alpha, who hadn't said anything else. Then Vexen—but Vexen wasn't going to say anything either.

"N- nine?" Riku repeated. Nine meltdowns. That was a lot. "N- ni- Namine?" He looked at her, eyes narrowing with concern.

She just shrugged again, turning her attention to Alpha.

"That means we don't have to be separated, right?" she asked.

"Like I said, we'll need to conduct more experiments before we're absolutely positive," Alpha said, tersely. "There are… variables that still need to be taken into account, and—"

"What sort of variables?"

There was a slight smile on Namine's face as she spoke. Alpha just stared at her, frowning. Riku slowly sat back down, since no one seemed to want to answer him about the whole nine meltdowns thing.

"Variables," Vexen said. "Like the amount of time you're separated. The distance." He waved his hand, vaguely. "Besides, an experiment must be repeated multiple times before you can conclude that the results yielded are in fact valid. Especially when testing a new hypothesis. We have no way of telling if what happened this time was a fluke or not."

The smile fell from Namine's face. "Maybe nine meltdowns was a fluke!" she protested. "But I still had meltdowns while he was gone. That's all we were testing for. Not how many I had."

"It doesn't matter," Alpha said. "We will still need to test this again. We can assume that the hypothesis was incorrect, but we'll need to run more tests before we can be positive."

Namine rolled her eyes.

Riku turned to look at her again.

"N- ni-nine?" he asked, voice quiet. "Are you…?"

"I'm fine," she said. But she suddenly looked very tired.

Riku sighed. Then he frowned. "Wait…" he looked up at Alpha. "It's almost like they got worse when I left."

"That's what the results would imply, yes." It was Vexen who answered. "But, according to Alpha, it doesn't all line up with previous data we have. Besides, the fact that we'll need to try the experiment again doesn't change. It'll take multiple tests before we are sure."

"Right…"

Riku looked back at Namine. She met his eyes, and sighed a little.

"We're done here, right?" she asked, addressing Alpha.

"Right," Alpha replied, sighing a little.

Namine nodded, grabbed Riku's hands, and got to her feet, pulling her with him. "Come on," she said. "I need to tell you something."