Chapter 195: Running from a Nightmare

"Behind you!"

"Come on, Riku, I'm fine!"

Riku bit his lip, tearing his eyes away from her. He couldn't help it. He just wanted her safe.

They were doing a quick round of the town. Him and Namine and Aerith. Aerith said they might as well give Namine some real practice fighting Heartless, since sitting and casting spells was nowhere near the same as actually fighting. Of course, there weren't a lot of Heartless, seeing as Yuffie and Cid had just been out. But maybe it was for the better. This was an amount Namine could handle.

In fact, Namine could handle it well enough that Aerith wasn't even fighting. She was just on the sidelines, giving Namine tips, but she left the Heartless alone, provided they left her alone. (There was always one or two that would get interested in her, purely because she wasn't doing anything.)

Well… maybe saying Namine could handle it wasn't exactly accurate. Saying that Namine and Riku together could handle it was probably better. Namine only knew three spells so far, and only one of them was offensive. She could defend herself just fine, but Riku still needed to kill a couple (most) of the Heartless, otherwise they'd be here all day.

It was taking Riku a lot of self-control to hold back though, to leave Heartless for Namine and more importantly let them attack her. (You could only practice Reflect if you had something to Reflect.) The hardest part was resisting the urge to jump to her aid when she was a little too slow with casting Reflect. He had to keep telling himself that there was a reason she was fighting the smaller Heartless.

The smaller Heartless can't do too much damage to her, he thought.

She'll be okay.

If she's really in danger she'll call for you.

Just focus on the larger Heartless. Those are the ones that are a threat.

Eventually Namine started getting tired, and there stopped being Heartless in the immediate vicinity, so they decided to head back.

"Hey, you could always try Cure now," Namine said, falling in step next to Riku. "I'm sure you've got a couple minor cuts and bruises, right?"

Riku shrugged. "I really don't remember getting hit…" he said.

"Oh come on!" Namine laughed. "I'm sure one Heartless got you."

"I killed everything in one or two hits. They didn't have time to attack me!"

Namine sighed.

Riku sighed too. He understood the need to learn Cure, but that didn't mean he was too enthusiastic about it, especially given his previous failure. Besides, he was fairly certain he wasn't hurt.

"Unless… you want me to try it on you?" he asked, throwing a glance at Namine.

"I already cured."

"Oh."

The rest of the walk back to Aerith's house was spent in silence.

That is, until they were right outside her house.

"But it looks cool!" someone shouted, very clearly whining.

Namine and Riku exchanged surprised looks.

"Joseph?" Namine whispered.

"Sounds like it…" Riku replied.

Sure enough, when they got inside, they found Cid and Joseph sitting at the table, arguing over various scraps of paper. Or, more likely, what was on the paper.

"Bu' do yeh know how much it'll cost teh make somethin' like tha'?" Cid argued, gesturing frustratedly at the paper, as if that explained it. "Besides, I'm not even sure if it'd work!"

"What are you two working on?" Aerith asked, heading over the table to look at what they were doing. Riku wasn't long after her, also very curious.

"Well, 29 said I could learn how to fight, I just had to get a weapon first!" Joseph explained, sitting back down in his chair. (He'd been previously leaning across the table to look at the papers, which Riku saw now were rough sketches of what he assumed were weapons.) "So me and Cid were working on some potential designs."

"I offered," Cid added.

"How long have you been here?" Riku asked, looking at Joseph.

"They got 'ere righ' after you three left," Cid answered.

Riku raised his eyebrows. They? He turned around, and found Toby sitting on one of the couches. Toby waved. Of course.

"What's all the yelling about, though?" Aerith asked.

"It's jus' tha' he wants somethin' real fancy," Cid explained, pushing the papers in their direction.

"It's a boomerang-dagger hybrid!" Joseph said, lunging across the table again to point at the papers. "I wanted a boomerang-dagger-shield hybrid, but Cid said that that was too much work and I could have two of those things but not all three. So I figured that—"

"And it's not practical in the sligh'est," Cid continued, talking over Joseph.

Joseph pouted at him. "It is not! Not not practical, that is. See, look?" He pointed at the drawings again. "The boomerang should fold in half and become something like a dagger. Plus it'll be easier to transport!"

"Why a boomerang?" Riku asked.

"Because," Joseph replied.

"Well… maybe you should learn how to use a boomerang, first," Aerith suggested. "Before you make Cid build you something fancy."

"I never said I was buildin' it anyway," Cid muttered. "Only said I'd help 'im with designs."

"Well maybe someone else will be willing to build it for me," Joseph said.

"Ah, more important question!" Namine called. She'd joined Toby on the couch. "Joseph, does 29 know you're here?"

"I- yeah! Of course he does!" Joseph said.

Riku admitted that Joseph managed to keep a very straight face while replying, not that it made much of a difference. Riku folded his arms across his chest and raised his eyebrows, not exactly believing it.

"Joseph…" he said.

Joseph's face fell immediately. "Okaaaaaay," he groaned. "Maybe he doesn't know exactly where I am, but it's not like I've been gone that long! It's not like I haven't gone and gotten ice cream without telling him before."

"We've only been here about thirty minutes," Toby added.

"Exactly! I've got another fifteen before 29 gets too worried!" Joseph grinned.

Riku threw a glance at Namine. She rolled her eyes.

"I'll go get him," Riku said.

"But- but you don't have to do that!" Joseph protested. "I've still got fifteen minutes and he'll find me eventually and I wouldn't… want to…" He trailed off, now looking between Aerith and Cid, who were both giving him very similar disappointed looks. He sighed and flopped back into his chair, pouting very furiously.

"I'd rather not worry him too much," Riku said, shrugging. "You know how he gets."

xxx

It didn't take him too long to find 29. 29 didn't seem upset, but he was grateful that Riku'd come and told him where Joseph was.

"I had a feeling he'd be with you if he wasn't in Twilight Town," 29 explained. "So I wasn't too worried. Do you want me to come get him?"

Riku shrugged. "I just… I assumed he was in trouble."

"Oh. Well." 29 made a face. "He's not… anywhere dangerous… though I suppose he should've told me where he was going…" He turned and looked at Riku, eyebrows raised, as if considering something.

Riku shuffled his feet. "Well…" he began.

"You want me to get him," 29 said.

Riku shrugged.

"No problem," 29 laughed. "Just don't expect I'll be able to convince him to leave right away."

xxx

Joseph and Cid were still arguing when they returned.

"No, I'm telling you it can work!" Joseph said, very furiously poking at the papers on the table, as if poking alone would change Cid's mind.

"An' I'm tellin' yeh it won't!" Cid replied, firmly. "It's too many extra parts an' it'll jus'—"

"29!" Joseph exclaimed, finally noticing him. He seemed excited at first, but then his face fell and he averted his eyes. "Oh. I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I was going… I just figured I could get back for… y'know… you got worried about me and…" He shrugged. "I don't know…"

29 smiled a little. "Well, next time, just be sure to let me know where you're heading, alright?"

Joseph nodded. "Got it."

29 pulled up a chair next to Joseph. "So… what are you working on, anyway?"

Joseph burst into a grin and launched into his explanation all over again. Riku rolled his eyes and went to the other room, where Namine was. He was surprised when she very suddenly slammed her pencil down on the couch next to her.

"No!" she said, under her breath, tearing the page out of her sketchbook. She very promptly started crumpling the paper up. "I won't draw that! I refuse to draw it. I refuse let it happen!"

Then she lit the paper on fire. Riku's eyes went wide. Leon looked up from his book, also very shocked.

"Namine?" Riku asked.

She looked at him, blinking a few times. "I—it's nothing," she said. She wouldn't look at him directly, though.

"That… didn't look like nothing," Leon said, slowly.

"It's not going to happen, therefore it doesn't matter."

Riku frowned. He recognized that tone of voice. And the choice of words. It sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than anyone else.

"What won't happen?" he asked, moving to sit down next to her.

"I said it's nothing!" Namine snapped, flipping to a blank page. "Alright? It's nothing."

Riku gently grabbed her sketchbook. "Maybe you should… stop drawing for now…" He said, slowly. He didn't pull the sketchbook away from her, he just held onto it. She looked up at him, frowning a little, but sighed.

"Yeah."

Now he pulled the sketchbook away from her, closing it and setting it down on the coffee table. He sat down on the couch next to her, and she immediately leaned against him, resting her head against his chest.

"You sure you don't want to talk about it?" he whispered, moving to wrap an arm around her, largely just so she'd be more comfortable.

She sighed. He could feel her breath against his skin.

"Just…" she began, but trailed off. She was silent for a long while, picking at something on his shirt. He tried to see what she was picking at, but her head was in the way. "I think I understand why you like it here," she whispered, after a moment.

"Hmm?"

"It's noisy," she said, laughing. "Not that that's a bad thing. It's nice, actually."

Riku chuckled. But she wasn't wrong. He could hear Joseph and Cid and 29 talking in the other room ("You're making it too complicated!" "Joseph, be nice.") He could hear Aerith and Toby in the kitchen ("Can you get that bowl for me?" "Uh-huh!").

And even when no one was talking, this house was rarely quiet. Leon tended to mutter while reading. Aerith hummed while she worked. No matter what Cid did, it was always noisy (and tended to involve a lot of swearing, even if under his breath). Yuffie tended to make a lot of noise, too—she was rarely ever silent.

Namine was right. The noise was comforting, in a way. Castle Oblivion was much quieter. Conversations were harder to overhear, and there weren't nearly enough people to make much noise in so large a space. The smaller noises tended to get sucked into the oblivion for which the Castle was named.

Regardless…

"You never answered my question," he said, quietly, laughing a little.

"One would think my blatant changing of the subject would clue you in to the fact that, no, I don't want to talk about it," Namine replied. Though she sounded annoyed, there was a hint of laughter in her voice.

He laughed again, harder this time. She just shook her head and snuggled closer to him. Riku closed his eyes, taking in the sounds around him.

"You're making this way more complicated than—" Joseph began.

"Lissen," Cid said, over him. "I'll see wha' I can do 'bout it, bu' I don' think I can do much!"

"Cid, did it ever occur to you that maybe this is out of your expertise?" Aerith laughed.

"Well, I dunno where he's supposed to find an actual weapon's specialist!" Cid retorted. "An' there's no guarantee he's gunna be able to get what he wants for cheap, either!"

"Well—" Joseph began.

"Thank you, anyway," 29 said, over him. "It is really nice of you to help him out on this."

"Yeah…" Joseph sighed. "Thank you."

"Yer welcome," Cid muttered. This was followed by the scrape of his chair against the floor and his footsteps as he headed up the stairs. Riku looked up and watched him go, before turning to look in Joseph's direction. From where he was, he could see through the kitchen and into the dining room, where Joseph was sitting.

"Alright Joseph," 29 said, getting up. "We should head back to Castle Oblivion now."

"But I wanna spend the night here!" Joseph protested, bouncing up and down in his seat.

Riku frowned. Namine giggled, shifting so she could look, too.

29 looked pretty taken aback by Joseph's statement.

"I don't have a problem with it," Aerith said, looking up from stirring… whatever it was she was cooking. It smelled a little like spaghetti. "That is, of course, if 29's okay with it."

Though he couldn't see her face, Riku was sure that she was giving Joseph a very stern look.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease 29?" Joseph begged. "It couldn't hurt for just one night! It's not like I'm in danger here and I haven't been out of Castle Oblivion in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages and—"

"Maybe another time," 29 interrupted.

"But I thought you said I wasn't in trouble!"

"Not exactly, no," 29 said. "But you did run off without telling me where you were heading, and while I'm not mad about it, it doesn't seem right to reward you for it."

"Awwww….." Joseph groaned.

"You could always just stay for dinner," Aerith suggested. "I cooked more than enough for everyone."