Chapter 193: Returning Home
"Riku? Heheh. What are you doing?"
Riku only glanced up at Namine for a second. "Ah. Counting munny," he said.
Well, more specifically, he was sorting the munny by size, so it'd be easier to count when he finally got to counting it. Unfortunately he had a lot of munny, so he could be sorting for a while.
"Yeah?" Namine asked, giggling a little more. He threw another glance at her. She was sitting on the end of his bed, her feet dangling, kicking them aimlessly.
"Yeah." He laughed, continuing to sort the munny.
"What for?"
"Well," he shrugged. "Figured I'd count what I had. But I was also planning on buying Aerith a set of plates…"
"Why would you need to do that?" And then Namine giggled. "Oh, right, you broke one, huh?"
He found himself smiling for some reason.
"Ahh…"
He hunched over, rearranging his piles of munny so they were far enough apart not to get mixed.
Namine slowly sat down next to him, taking the munny from his hand and sorting it herself. "Why a set of plates, anyway?" she asked. "You only need to replace one, right?"
"I'm… not sure if it's possible to buy plates separately…" Riku replied, slowly. He reached into his drawer and pulled out another handful of munny to sort.
"Good point," Namine muttered. "Where'd you get all this munny, anyway?"
"It's just… piled up." Riku grimaced. "I've never really needed to spend it on anything. Or not a lot of things. Also, do you know how much munny Heartless drop?" He looked over at her, shaking his head. "Even when I let Yuffie pick up most of the munny, I still end up with quite a bit! And since I never spend it, it just piles up and… It's probably been piling up for, like, six months now?" He shrugged.
"I… suppose that would do it."
They sat there for a while, still sorting the munny, making idle chitchat as they did so. Finally the drawer was empty, and Riku started counting the munny, muttering under his breath as he did so. Namine tried talking to him, but that only made him lose track of what he was counting, and helping him count didn't actually help either. Eventually she left the room. Riku was a little worried, but tried not to think too much about it, since he'd only counted 934 pieces of munny, and still had a lot more to go.
Namine returned shortly, though, a pencil and her sketchbook in tow. Of course. She'd just gone to get something so she could draw. It was… ah… 976. That's what he was on. 976… 977…
To his surprise, instead of drawing, Namine sat and waited and did nothing. Or, at least, she did nothing until he reached 1,000. When he did, she made a mark on her piece of paper, and then scooped up the munny he'd already counted and dropped it back in the drawer. "So you don't count it twice," she explained.
He stopped her at the next thousand. "Ah, you should probably put that to the side. So I don't have to count it again."
"Right," she nodded. "How much do you think plates will cost?"
"Ah… two thousand. To be safe."
"Got it."
"Hmm…" He rolled one of the larger munny pieces between his fingers. "Maybe I'll… give them extra munny. To help them fix up the town. Yeah?" He looked over at Namine.
She shrugged. "That's up to you."
Riku slowly nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll…" He nodded again. "How much do you think is too much?"
"What were you thinking?"
"A couple… ten thousand?"
"That's a lot…"
He laughed. "Namine, did you see how much I have here?"
So far, he'd counted 5,016, and he'd only just made it to the second pile of munny. Considering this pile was fairly large and all the pieces were worth 5 munny, and the other pile was even larger and all the munny pieces were worth 20, it looked like he'd have plenty.
"50 thousand?" Namine said, after a moment.
"You think so?"
She shrugged again. "How much do you think they'll need for… town… fixing… upping?"
"…good point."
He went back to counting.
He wasn't exactly sure how long it took him—though it probably took him most of the morning—but finally he finished. The grand total was 129,533 munny, minus the 52 thousand he'd set aside.
"That was fun," Namine said.
Riku laughed. Sure, he supposed he could call that fun. He got to his feet, stretching. It was amazing how sitting on the floor for so long could make your back hurt so much… He let out a long breath, pocketed the pouch they'd put the 52 thousand in, and turned to Namine.
"To Hollow Bastion, then?" he asked.
"We should tell Alpha first."
xxx
Riku knocked on the door, shifting from foot to foot. He was holding the plates they'd bought behind his back, so they'd be something of a surprise. It was only a set of four plates, but he and Namine had spent a good ten minutes arguing on whether or not to get plates with or without a flower pattern. Eventually Namine'd caved, though she still made him rethink the choice in plates. (He was secretly glad for that, as the first set of plates he'd picked out had actually looked pretty awful.)
"You ready?" Riku asked, throwing a glance over at Namine.
She beamed, clutching her sketchbook tightly to her chest. "Of course!"
Aerith opened the door, and laughed when she saw them.
"You used the door!" she exclaimed.
Riku flushed. "We, uh, walked," he explained, coughing nervously. "Well. We were… already… in town. Here." He handed over the plates, just to get it over with.
Aerith gasped in surprise. "You didn't have to!" she told him.
"Ah." He frowned. "You didn't already replace the plate, did you?"
"Well… no…"
"Oh! Good!"
"But you didn't have to—"
"I know, I know!" Riku laughed. "I didn't have to get an entire set. But I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to buy just one plate." He shrugged. "It's not a problem, is it? It's only a set of four…"
"No, I mean you didn't have to at all," Aerith said.
"I broke it."
"I told you to!"
"Well-" Riku grimaced. "I already bought the plates. Are we really gonna argue about it? 'Cause I guess I can just return them, though I don't think the store will be too happy about that."
"I—"
"Jus' take the plates, Aerith!" Cid called from inside.
Riku chuckled. Namine giggled. Aerith sighed, and took the plates from Riku.
"I… forgot to get a glass, though," Riku said. "Sorry."
"That's- that's fine," Aerith assured him, moving so they could come inside. "Thank you."
"It was nothing."
Aerith went and set the plates down on the kitchen counter.
"Nice teh see yeh again!" Cid called, from the table. He didn't look up from what he was doing, though, which… involved his spear, somehow. Riku couldn't tell if he was fixing it or working on it or just… examining it.
"Nice to see you, too!" Namine said.
"You just left…" Yuffie muttered. She was hanging upside down from the back of the nearest couch, tossing her tennis ball up in the air and catching it again. Surprisingly she didn't drop it. Or flinch when it came three inches from her face.
"Did I really?" Riku asked, a little worried. "Has it only been—"
"No, no!" Aerith assured him, quickly. "It's been a few days. But, y'know, it still feels like you just left."
"Right."
Aerith gave him one long look, then opened her arms for a hug. He barely hesitated a second before accepting it. Once she let go of him, she turned to Namine, and immediately offered her a hug. Namine hesitated a second longer than Riku had, but she accepted the hug, too. (It looked like a slightly uncomfortable hug, though, seeing as Namine was still holding her sketchbook.)
"How long are you staying?" Aerith asked, once she was done hugging Namine.
"The night?" Riku shrugged. "Maybe a little longer?"
Aerith just shrugged, too, smiling. "It doesn't matter to me how long you stay," she said. "Though I'd imagine that you couldn't stay here too long. You've still got responsibilities in Castle Oblivion, don't you?"
"Things have quieted down," Riku said. "They won't miss me if I'm gone for too long."
"Alpha okayed us for about a week," Namine added, settling down on the couch opposite Yuffie. Yuffie groaned a little, but she'd also dropped her tennis ball at the exact same moment, so Riku wasn't sure if she was groaning because of that or because he was potentially going to be staying for a while. (He got the feeling she didn't much like him staying over.)
"Hey! Speakin' of!" Cid called, looking up. "How'd tha' experiment of yers go, anyway?"
Riku looked over at Namine. She glanced up from her sketchbook, meeting his eyes. She didn't say anything, but somehow he just knew. She was thinking about explaining how she'd sabotaged the experiment. And he'd let her, if she really wanted to, but she didn't seem so sure on whether or not she actually wanted to. Besides, it was such an unimportant detail…
"It doesn't matter," he said, turning to Cid. "We figured out how to stop the meltdowns."
"You did!?" Yuffie asked, righting herself so she was sitting upright instead of upside down. She seemed excited.
"And it doesn't… involve staying separate, I assume," Aerith said, frowning a little.
Riku shook his head, grinning.
"How do you stop them, then?" Leon asked. He was in the kitchen, in the middle of opening the box of plates. He'd paused, though—knife still in his hand to cut the tape on the box—clearly more curious about the conversation than the plates.
Riku felt his cheeks grow hot. He threw a glance over at Namine, not sure how to continue. Unfortunately her eyes were firmly fixed on her sketchbook. Though with the way she was hunched over, he had a feeling she was hiding her blush.
"Uhm," Riku began, shifting from foot to foot. They really needed to stop barging into the topic like this. They'd done this when talking to Alpha about the matter, too!
And, unfortunately, Riku couldn't remember what exactly they'd told Alpha. If he could've remembered it, then he'd just repeat it. But since he couldn't remember it…
"Happy memories," Namine said. She cleared her throat. Repeated it, louder this time. "Happy memories. To counteract the bad ones."
"Tha' works?" Cid asked. He sounded slightly surprised.
Namine nodded, though a bit more vigorously than may have been necessary. "We think so," she explained. "Not that we've had a chance to properly try it. It seemed to work once, but…"
"Well if it worked once… then why shouldn't it work again?" Yuffie asked.
"Variables and things," Riku said, bitterly. "Vexen and all his Replicas are very… particular about their experiments. It's going to take multiple tests before any of them are satisfied."
"Alpha's rather persnickety about the matter, too," Namine added.
"Yeah."
"Well, that's exciting, regardless!" Aerith said, clapping her hands together. "Oh! By the way, the Heartless have been just as quiet as they were last time you were here." She gave him a long look. "Though I'm saying this for your sake more than anything else. I know how… antsy you get when you haven't killed any monsters for an extended period of time."
She smiled slightly.
"I'm sure I'll be fine!" Riku laughed, plopping himself down on the couch next to Namine.
"No you won't be," Namine giggled.
"If you get too antsy, I s'pose yeh can help us out 'round town," Cid said, squinting down at his spear.
"At the very least, it'll get you up and moving," Leon added, his attention already returned to the box of plates.
"Yeah, even if yeh can't do much in the way of helpin'!" Cid laughed.
Riku scowled. "Or I just do a round around town," he said. "There's always a couple Heartless lurking here and there."
"Ah, I'm not sure if you should go alone, though," Aerith said, quickly. "Considering… what happened last time…"
What happened last time. Meaning the Heartless with the lightning and—
"I'll know to get rid of them right away!" Riku said.
"Yellow Operas travel in packs." Though his voice was firm, Leon was very nonchalant as he said it, busily stacking the plates in one of the cupboards. "Usually three, if not four or five. Even if you can take out two right away, you'll still have at least one more to worry about."
"Yeah, but last time was a fluke!" Riku argued. "I'm sure I'll be—"
"Riku," Aerith interrupted. She fumbled for words, but no more came out.
"Yellow Operas?" Namine asked, quietly. "The… ones with the lightning, huh?"
Riku grunted. "Yeah."
"They know?"
"The basics."
"I know!" Aerith declared, finally. "Namine, how would you like to learn some magic?"
Namine looked up, clearly shocked.
"Uhm… Okay!"
She set her sketchbook down on the couch, and got to her feet, joining Aerith in the open area of the room.
"I'm going to start you off with defensive magic first, along with curative, if you don't mind," Aerith said.
"That sounds fine!" Namine nodded. There was a slight grin on her face.
Riku shifted slightly, as he watched, feeling antsy all of a sudden. Not that he minded if Namine learned magic! She could do whatever she wanted—plus it meant she could hold her own during a battle, and not be forced to sit on the sidelines. That was a good thing.
"Unfortunately, you aren't going to be able to learn the most useful spells within a day," Aerith said. "Barriers are hard enough as it is, and M-barriers are extra tricky. Not to mention it could be a long while before you get the hang of something like a Wall."
"What do Barriers do?" Namine asked.
"Protect from physical attacks," Aerith replied.
"So… M-barriers protect from magic attacks, right?"
"You catch on quick!"
Namine grinned even wider.
"Right, so, what are we starting with?"