The Tale of the Lost

DnCnChIcK369

Dresses, Scars, and Promises

A/N: I'm anxious… This chapter reveals a lot. Not what a lot of you probably WANT to be revealed, but some pretty important stuff about Zopyris. Of course, there's still a lot more to him than just this chapter.

Review Replies:

Kairi irl: Haha thanks for another review! Yeah, the Riku and Meera thinking thing… it gets funny sometimes. Because they both have such interesting thoughts! Lol! Yes, the waitress was fun. I might have to add her back in when they go back to Twilight Town… which they will, eventually. Oh yes, Sora and Kairi get quite confused, you'll see some confusion in this chapter from Kairi. And Meera and Riku? You can never predict what they do. I can't even predict it. They have mids of their own. And at this rate, it's gonna take a while for any romance to develop here… I ALWAYS GIVE YOU SUCH LONG REPLIES!!! Anyway, thankies for the review::hands nine cookies::

spirit-rider125: Alright, you're funny. You reviewed the wrong chapter! But oh well, I still know what you mean. But I just wanna know… how did you read chapter 8 and then somehow get back to chapter one to review? It just doesn't make sense! A lot were involved, lol, I just couldn't resist. It had some foreshadowing too, might I add. Thanks for reviewing::hands nine cookies::

Thanks!

Enjoy!

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Meera looked around her room… or, the room she was staying in. She was thinking about how thanking that waitress might have been nice. And she was thinking about how, if her and Riku were the ones planning on THROWING this masque… thing, then she would need a dress and a mask.

And most dresses don't cover the shoulders very well.

She ran out of Olette's house, planning on going and finding a dress… but ran right into Kairi in the doorway.

"Meera? Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Kairi asked, raising an eyebrow when she saw the large bag of munny in Meera's hand.

"Oh! Me and Riku are throwing a masque ball thing in Halloween Town or Christmas Town, whichever it ends up being in, and you and Sora have to come too! And I'm gonna go buy a dress and a mask, and you need to make sure you have one too!" Meera exclaimed before running past Kairi and out the door. She heard footsteps behind her.

"Meera, wait! If you're gonna go shopping for that now, I want to come too!" Kairi yelled, causing Meera to stop. "Why are you in such a rush, anyway?"

'Because I need to go nag Riku to tell Sora about it, and finding some way to cover my shoulder is going to be a pain, and then me and Riku need to find some mistletoe to make sure we put you two under, and then I need to nag HIM to find a mask… and then laugh at him when I see him in a tux, and then we have to leave to plan it in Halloween Town and stuff because the faster I get this all over with, the happier I'll be… but I can't really tell her that, now can I?' Meera thought.

"Because I'm excited!" Meera exclaimed with a small smile. Kairi smiled a little and raised en eyebrow.

"And… you and RIKU planned this?" She asked. Meera's smile dropped and she nodded.

'Now how am I supposed to explain that?' She thought to herself.

"Yeah Kairi, we just thought it would be a great idea, and Meera, here, just wanted to see how she would look in Halloween Town SO badly, which is why we're having it there!" Riku walked up to Meera and put an arm around her shoulders, smirking, and Meera shoved him off.

"He's exaggerating, but pretty much… that's the story," Meera told Kairi, for lack of a better explanation. "And YOU," Meera poked Riku's arm, "need to go and tell Sora. And get a mask and tux, because since WE are hosting it, you'd better look nice, or you're gonna have an ugly bruise somewhere."

"Ouch, I'm hurt," Riku muttered, sarcastically. He rolled his eyes and walked off to where Meera and Kairi assumed Sora would be.

"Aw man, and here I thought this meant you two were starting to get along, causing a lot less headaches," Kairi said disappointed.

"Nope."

"So… I still don't get WHY you're doing this…" Kairi told Meera. Meera laughed.

"I'll make you a deal. AFTER this ball thing, I'll tell you EXACTLY why we did it. You might figure it out by then, because you're pretty smart, but if not, that's when you get to know," Meera explained, smirking. "Now come on, time to go shop."

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It took a while to find a good dress shop in Twilight Town, but eventually, the two girls found a Tux and Dress shop. Meera and Kairi were debating on going there for about five minutes. Kairi said it was the best shop they'd find there and the dresses looked pretty AND comfortable. Meera was against it because all of the dresses either came off of the shoulders or was strapless.

But they went in anyway since Kairi argued the larger point.

Kairi looked around slowly, taking her time, and finally picking a dress that was light blue in the top and faded to light pink in the bottom. It had loose, short sleeves that hung off of the shoulders. She also picked a midnight blue dress that looked as though it had stars sparkling on it. This was strapless and silky. She took them into the dressing room and eventually chose the midnight blue dress.

During this time, Meera was looking for her dress. She picked up a long, light purple dress that had a trail. It was strapless and had a large V in the back, but she had a white jacket she could wear with it. She also grabbed a short(knee-length)black dress that was very flowy at the bottom, but very tight at the top. It had tiny spaghetti straps, but she had a small, short sleeved, black jacket she could wear with it. She decided she would try them both on, and if they both fit, then she would get both and decide by finding the best mask she could.

She was looking for someone to ask for a dressing room when she noticed Kairi had on the midnight blue dress and was looking in the mirror, seeing how it looked on her. The door opened.

Sora had walked into the store(it sells tuxes too, remember?)and his mouth fell open when he saw Kairi. Meera turned around and saw him, walked up to him, and closed his mouth.

"Careful Sora, don't wanna eat flies, do you?" Meera asked. He shook his head, still staring at Kairi, when he realized Meera saw him staring.

"Uh…um…don't tell her I was staring at her," Sora said.

"At who now?" Meera asked.

"Thanks… oh, and Riku said if I saw you that you don't need to nag him about finding stuff to wear or telling me about the ball thing because he already told me, and we split up trying to find places to go to," Sora told Meera, who nodded and found an assistant to get into the dressing rooms.

The first dress Meera put on was the black one, which fit very well, and she was sure she'd be able to find a black mask to go with it. She went back into the dressing room and hung it back up, not noticing that the door opened and closed again.

She had been completely sure that no one was outside the dressing rooms when she tried on the black dress, and this time she was too, when she put on the light purple one. She went out and looked at hoe it looked on her in the mirror there, but then she heard a voice behind her.

"What happened to you?"

Meera screamed and her hand, once again, flew to her shoulder as she turned around, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Keep it down back there!" A shop assistant yelled.

"What are you doing here?" Meera asked, quietly, still keeping her hand on her shoulder.

"I'm here to buy a tux. Like you told me to. Sora and Kairi are in here too, so I'm sure you know it's got tuxes AND dresses. This is the only tux place here," Riku said. Meera slowly opened her eyes and stared at Riku for a moment before slowly removing her hand from her shoulder and sitting down on a bench.

"What do you want, Riku?" She asked quietly, not planning on them knowing about this yet.

'Jeez, she really DOES hate me…' Riku thought.

"I want to know what happened… so I can help," He told her. Meera looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

'See Meera? This is how everyone is different. No matter how alike two people, or even three people, may be in appearance, there's always something truly different about each of them. You should tell him, since he knows it's there, and you don't want to tell anyone else…' Meera thought to herself. Riku sat down on a chair, staring at her expectantly.

"Not in here… just let me buy the dresses and we can go somewhere… and you can get a tux while I'm paying so you don't have to come back here, okay?" Meera told him, going back into the room, carefully avoiding his eyes.

She changed out of the dress and hung it up, getting back into her own clothes, and exited the dressing room area, noticing that Riku was somehow already done with a black tux in hand. Meera walked up to the desk, paid for the dresses, and handed then to Riku, who took them, startled.

"Can I ask why I'm holding your stuff?" Riku asked from behind a tux and two dresses. "AND why you have two?"

"Go ahead."

"Why am I holding your dresses and why do you have two," Riku asked sarcastically after a short pause.

"You're holding them because I don't want to and you're making me tell you about my scar, and I have two because I couldn't decide, so I'll pick by whichever mask I end up liking better when I go and buy one," Meera told him, still walking forward. She knocked on Olette's door and grabbed the dresses from Riku, quickly taking them to the room she was staying in, and meeting Riku back at the door. His tux was gone.

"Where did it go?"

"It's with my keyblade. I've done it with stuff before, so it's completely safe. When I summon my keyblade, it'll be attached to it," Riku explained. Meera rolled her eyes.

"We're going to sunset hill because it's secluded. And if you tell anyone, anyone at all, what I'm going to tell you, then I won't help you at all with the stupid ball, and you'll have TWO bruises. So don't even think about it," Meera told him, scowling, and walking briskly toward the hill.

"Why is it that you're telling ME instead of Sora or Kairi?"

"Because THEY don't know it's there. You do. So I figure that it's more likely you'll listen to me and don't tell anyone if you know what happened. Don't you dare try and prove me wrong."

"I get it, I won't tell anybody!"

"Good," Meera said, continuing her walking. Eventually, they reached the top of the hill and sat down. Meera looked up at the stars.(Yes, it is night.)

"Did Kairi tell you about what King Mickey told me and her?" Meera asked.

"Yeah, the thing about the girl who Zopyris or whoever wanted to kill?" Meera nodded. "Yeah."

"Well… that girl, the one he scarred at age nine… that's me. Zopyris did this to me. I'm the girl you guys are looking for. He… he used some sort of fire and lightning combination on me when I wouldn't heal him. I already felt weak that day…"

"You stupid girl, stop complaining! I could always just not give you any of my food at all!"

"I… I'm sorry, I just thought, if you want me to help you, you could at least be nicer, or… or give me food that's better than… whatever this is!" Meera exclaimed.

"And maybe you should learn more respect!"

"Why should I respect YOU?"

"I'M your MASTER, and you'll do whatever I say!" Zopyris screamed at her.

Meera winced and calmly ate her food, if you could call it that. Zopyris left then to do whatever it was he did during the day…

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When he came back, he had a large, bleeding gash in his side. Meera didn't know that nobodies could bleed. But he ordered her, right then, to heal him.

And she knew she couldn't.

She hadn't had enough food or sleep to have a normal amount of energy, and she knew if she healed him, it would completely drain her. She would die.

"I can't…I'll die…"

"Stupid girl! If you don't heal me right now, you'll die by my hand anyway!"

"I CAN'T!"

Zopyris shot lightning-fire at Meera, and it hit her in the right shoulder, mostly on the back, but some on the side of her arm and front. Meera screamed out, collapsing to the floor, and by some lucky chance, Zopyris collapsed too, most likely using his energy on the attack.

"I promise I'll kill you one day, and anyone else close to you. And I never break a promise."

Tears were streaming down Meera's face as she told Riku the story of what happened that day, and Riku, not knowing how to handle crying girls, did the only thing he could think of doing when she was done.

He hugged her.

At first, Meera was shocked, and she struggled a bit, but eventually calmed down and cried into Riku's shirt.

'I feel… really sorry for her. I can't believe she's the girl we're supposed to be finding and protecting… maybe that's why she was having problems before when I yelled at her. Because so did that Zopyris guy…' Riku thought.

"I'm sorry I'm screwing up your shirt… I'm just completely useless… Cloud shouldn't have caught me and- OUCH!" Meera muttered, and then screamed, looking up at Riku. "What the HELL was that for?"

"Stop moping!" Riku had slapped the back of her head, which she was now rubbing, along with staring at Riku's now drenched shirt, pulling away from him. "You think you aren't of any use to the world, but if that were the case, the world would have killed you by now. And I'm pretty sure you aren't dead. So cheer up!"

"Why'd you have to SLAP me?" Meera asked, now glaring at Riku.

"To get you back in reality! Can't you even imagine how sad Sora and Kairi would be if you died? And Cloud?" Riku asked.

"How do you even know that I'm talking about dying?" Meera asked.

"Because what else could Cloud have caught you from other than jumping or falling off of something? I'm not stupid," Riku explained.

"And you'd be happy if I died, wouldn't you?"

"No! I wouldn't! How could that make me HAPPY? I feel like you thought I hated you BEFORE you decided to hate me! And I don't even know what I did! I'm sorry, okay? I feel really bad now, for saying all of that mean stuff to you, and yelling at you, and I'm seriously sorry," Riku told her. 'I can't believe I just said that…'

"You're only sorry because you know what happened in my past. Think of how you would think of me, right now, if I hadn't of told you about that. If you hadn't seen my scar. I believe that you mean it. But you aren't sorry because you should be. You aren't sorry because you want to take back what you said, or did. You're sorry because I had a bad past and you feel guilt for making me cry multiiple times, even though you don't know why. And until you know why I cried those times, you can't possibly be sorry."

Meera stood up and left a dumbfounded Riku sitting there, staring after her, groaning and wondering, 'Why can't I ever do something RIGHT?'

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A/N: Welllllll… there you go! Poor Riku, so clueless, isn't he? Probably a LOT of you now know why Meera hates Riku so much. It's kinda obvious now. And She's going to tell him herself soon anyway.

No bloopers or extra stuff for this one. TTFN!

Alyssa R.T.