A/N: Well, I'm happy that this story at least got some reviews. That tells me that it's not an epic fail so far, yay! XD Thanks for reviewing, Ninja Sheik and Rawkstar Vienna! I owe you guys. XDD But, aside from this topic, chapter two is a little bit more interesting. I hope. But, really, it is.
Disclaimer: I don't own KH at all.
For the past two nights, Riku could barely sleep due to the troubling thought that only girl he remotely cared about and his best friend would actually become lovers. Then again, it was obvious ever since Kairi washed up on shore that she and Sora be together, almost like a fairy tale couple. Naturally, Riku had mixed feelings concerning the whole affair: happy that Sora and Kairi gave each other love, sad that she couldn't return his own secret affections, jealous—but, he shouldn't be jealous over this.
He should wise up by getting over her to find someone who could bestow him with the gift of requited love...not crazy, obsessive love like Selphie. No, going out with Selphie was entirely out of the question. He needed to find a girl somewhere else, not on these islands where roughly seventy percent of the girls bragged about being members of his fan club. Really, he was just a sixteen-year-old boy, not a male celebrity!
This morning, as the seabirds sang in their very audible chorus along with the vivid orange sun rising over the horizon, Riku pushed himself off his bed. Dreams taunted him last night, showing heartening images of what could have been. Days going by with the always companionable sun at their backs, nights going by with the sharing of a paupau fruit with a certain redheaded girl, and the memories of broken paradise non-existent. If only none of this had happened, the shattering of the ocean and sky and land (Kairi and Sora and Riku) that disrupted the hitherto balance of their lives. Then again, even the escape savored in dreams could not erase the past, and he knew that better than anyone. He experienced firsthand the true harshness of the world, innocence lost.
To take his mind off these insufferable dreams of longing, he descended downstairs to the kitchen, where he fixed himself some scrambled eggs, a few strips of bacon, and hash browns. Not really an ideal breakfast, but it would at least perk him up somewhat. Besides, he needed all the energy he could get, considering he and his friends would set out on their vacation today. For some miraculous reason barely known to him, Sora had managed to book a gummi ship for a month.
He assumed that maybe Destiny Islands had been smart enough to finally have a gummi garage installed here. If somebody had told him there would be one a year ago, chances were that he probably would have disdainfully laughed. For, in reality, he had turned that cold toward everyone in the worlds, so it seemed. He practically blocked everyone from ever getting near him, from trying to chip away the stone that had encased his heart to discover the real him. After quickly eating his food and gulping down some coffee, he left the house as soon as he retrieved his packed suitcase.
Toting the nearly bursting suitcase over his shoulder, Riku headed toward the bustling village where all of the shops and food stalls and even a library were located. In truth, this small village was the only place where he could so much as take a glimpse into an entire world. All of the sights and sounds ever seen and heard existed: the imploring of a food vendor to try the fruit he sold, the early risers who industriously mowed their lawns, and kids running over to an ice cream stall to sample a recently imported sea-salt flavor. Maybe he should have realized that he didn't need to roam the worlds, when what he needed rested here on these islands. But, once considering that everyone else would shun him, perhaps it was a good idea to spend summer vacation somewhere else. By then, people were sure to forget....that is, if they knew about his betrayal in the first place.
What happened on that day was strictly between him and his friends; really, he doubted anyone else could find out. Still, better safe than sorry—as long as he could release the ill-fated memories of his past, nothing else mattered. This trip would be the first step. Filled with gummi ships of almost every shape and size, the gummi garage had been built specifically for the storage of these sophisticated ships as well as for defense purposes. After all, in the event that another frightening attack on the islands should happen, the citizens could make great use of these high-flying vehicles. However, hopes were generally high when it came to the possibility of that occurring. As Riku walked by these hundred or so ships, he searched for the one that Sora booked.
Unsurprisingly, his close friends selected a cherry red gummi ship with sky blue wings that would help to keep it aloft for hours at a time. Of course, it stood out among the other ships, which was the unsurprising part of it all; Sora always liked to be bold, no matter what the occasion. He had lifted the back "hood" of the ship, Riku noted, to check for any disrepair since not even managers could guarantee a perfectly operating ship. Smudges of oil managed to dirty up Sora's face, noticeable once he shut the hood. Upon glimpsing Riku standing there with an arched brow of half-amusement, Sora hurriedly wiped his hands on a mechanic's rag and rushed over there to greet him. Kairi followed intimately close behind, wearing a simple pair of jeans and a violet T-shirt with a blue butterfly on it instead of that rather revealing pink outfit. In fact, just yesterday she had vowed that she refused to allow Selphie to influence her fashion decisions any more.
"So, I'm guessing you're ready to go, Riku," Sora stated instead of questioned. "Well, we already have our stuff in the back of the ship, so you put your suitcase there, too. And, believe me, this gummi ship is roomier inside than it looks. I think I got a good bargain for the rental. Oh, and one more thing: you have to take your shoes off once inside. We don't want any extra weight."
Riku nodded briskly. "Yeah, that's fine. I'm just glad we don't plan on taking a raft."
The silver haired boy smirked upon that memory once he mentioned it, and Sora and Kairi good-naturedly laughed about that silly, childish fantasy. But, it had been a wistful fantasy full of yearning.
"Well, the times have changed." Sora patted him on the back.
"I agree without any doubt, Sora," Kairi told him in a subtly flirtatious way.
The two of them proceeded to kiss each other, which Riku welcomed yet felt extremely awkward about being subjected to watching some romance scene that could have come straight from a movie. Public displays of affection did happen a lot for dating couples...he just wished that all of them, even his two best friends, would keep it more to themselves. Single people like him just weren't comfortable with that sort of thing. Oh well, he thought simply as they boarded the ship, they needed each other more than him anyway. They looked unstoppable together. As the ship soared through this eerie perception of space that all of the worlds lay in, Sora steered the ship while Kairi would occasionally give him a playful kiss on the cheek. Make it stop. Please.
Oh, he should stop sounding so desperate in his thoughts! That would get him nowhere. So, he casually leaned back against his chair and wasted some pocket munny on an actual vending machine, which produced a can of his favorite soda for him. With a fizz and some of the carbonated sugary liquid spreading on top of the can, he loudly slurped it to distract himself from this excess love. Love could turn into poison pretty fast, didn't they know that? Oh wait, that was just him a year ago. Never mind, hypocrite.
"Wow, you two can't keep your hands off each other," he remarked at one point, smiling cheekily. Well, if he could still joke with them without treating him like the third wheel, he would make the best of things. After all, that was his creed from here on out.
Sora merely shook his head. "Good point, man, but I love Kairi. Oh, here's our stop—nearly missed it back there."
A group of people stood outside the ship once it landed smoothly inside the Radiant Garden gummi ship garage. These people seemed to be the elite warriors of the recently safer hamlet or if not, Sora's friends. That kid had a knack for befriending people, what with his amicable yet naïve nature, which could endear anybody to him. Riku sort of wanted to be like him when it came to that quality. That reminded him of that conversation on the beach, the one in which they realized how strong their friendship bond really was... To this day, he could hardly believe that Sora forgave him for his indiscretions. Faith in someone could really go far. Once the trio disembarked, the group of four people quickly approached them, especially a short girl dressed in ninja clothes who practically ran toward them. Riku thought she looked...interesting.
She seemed the most excitable out of the rest of the people who were a calm, peaceful young woman in pink garb, a stoic man with a Gunblade over his shoulder, and a middle-aged man with a cigarette in his mouth and goggles on his head. Out of all these other people, the teenage girl ensured to greet Sora and his friends first.
"Sora!" she yelled to him in acknowledgement. "It's good to see you again. Are these your friends?"
Apparently knowing this girl quite well, Sora gave her a warm smile. "Yeah, Yuffie, they are. This is Kairi, and this is Riku. These were the two people I was looking for last year."
"Ah, the famous Riku and Kairi! I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie at your service!" Yuffie turned toward Sora's best friend and girlfriend respectively to bestow to them an overexaggerated sweeping bow.
Riku inwardly admitted that he felt rather put-off by this girl's enthusiastic behavior; normally, he would look down condescendingly upon this sort of quality. Yet, there was inevitably something about her that struck him immediately. In spite of that, though, his aqua colored eyes turned ice-cold upon glancing at this outrageous aspiring ninja. Unfortunately, she noticed his glare.
"Oh," she paid sudden attention to him by obviously pretending to ignore his facial expression. "You must be the stoic guy of the group, huh? I should know—Squall here acts like that constantly."
"Yuffie, you know by now it's Leon," Leon sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose exasperatedly.
Crossing his arms as stoically as she made him out to be, he replied cuttingly, "If you knew me, then you'd know why I would be so stoic. At least I'm not delusional enough to think I'm a ninja."
Defiantly placing her hands on her protruding hips as well as pursing her lips into a feigned pout, Yuffie reacted to this by playfully looking at him with her dark eyes and saying, "Well, I'm a little offended by that, Riku. You see, I actually come from Wutai—ninja country, to translate to a newb like you. I'm the real deal. And what are you? The suave guy who ends up as someone in a love triangle?"
Even though she was just guessing by casually remarking this, this stung quite a bit. Considering he recently lost out in said love triangle, the wound was still fresh. Luckily, Aerith (the pink clad girl) had an idea as to how far Yuffie went with her snide yet almost amicable jokes.
"I think we should all go back to our new townhouse to offer our guests some tea," she informed her rambunctious friend.
"Townhouse? Wow, you guys sure came a long way since Traverse Town," Sora spoke lightly.
So, as they all shared tea and midday lunch together, Sora discussed with Leon and Cid concerning the fall-out of Xemnas' defeat among other things. Kairi, in the mean time, candidly discussed her feelings for Sora to Aerith, leaving Riku to reluctantly try to strike up a conversation with Yuffie. How awkward could that be after their snippy dialogue? With his spoon, he kept stirring his green tea as though it and it alone existed, but the ninja girl didn't seem to take the hint. Even as she nibbled her ham and cheese sandwich, she talked to him about everything. And he attempted rather unsuccessfully to disregard her bubbly, lively chatter. Again, something kind of drew him to her.
Slurping her tea, she commented in a wistful tone, "You're so lucky to live on Destiny Islands. I love tropical."
For some odd reason he himself could barely comprehend, he found himself responding with, "I can see why you probably would love to live there. But, after a while, it gets kind of boring."
Much to his surprise, for he had assumed she didn't care about his silence, Yuffie exclaimed, "He speaks! Look, you know I was just giving you a hard time earlier, right?"
"Right," he simply stated, continuing to focus on the contents of his tea, especially the leaves. He also took this time to eat his own sandwich, a classic BLT with mayonnaise. As he thoughtfully chewed the last of the bacon, Yuffie's eccentric behavior returned with a vengeance. She leaned extremely close to him from across the table, peering over the chipped rim of his teacup.
"Uh..." Riku tried to articulate, on the verge of blushing. "What are you doing?"
"Tea leaves always mean something, Riku. Don't you know that? I wanna know what yours mean."
Very doubtfully, the silver haired adolescent glanced downward toward the shapeless brown lumps in the tea liquid. Sure, he heard of the whole legend regarding tea leaves, but he had dismissed it as a paltry old wives' tale. Seriously, what was the deal with them? Despite all of this negativity that his thoughts emitted, he could hardly suppress a smile of amusement. Maybe this slightly perky girl wasn't all that bad. Still, best to keep his distance for now. As she squinted to figure out the implication of these lumpy forms, she clicked her tongue unsurely.
"I forget what these would mean," she groaned impatiently, nearly venting her frustration on her sandwich by savagely biting off most of it. "It's not like I live in Wutai, right here, right now."
Aerith seemed to overhear the complaint of her younger friend, for she wandered down the table toward them.
Seating herself on the cushioned seat next to Yuffie, the young woman with the braided light brown hair told her, "I think I can read these leaves, Yuffie. I studied a whole book on tassegraphy to help with my floral business. Aside from that, well...bring the cup over here, Riku."
Nodding slightly while questioning why this was so important, Riku gave his teacup to Aerith, wondering what his fortune would say. He admitted to himself that it couldn't be anything good, and he dwelled on what horrible things he would find out. Kairi and Sora would reject him, perhaps? The next adventure would involve death? Or, worst of all, would the tea leaves say Ansem would arise from the dead?
His heart nearly stopped when Aerith gently informed, "Apparently, love will come into your life soon."
Love? He doubted that he even remotely deserved such a happy, tangible feeling as that. Besides, Kairi had always loved Sora, he could see that now—those two were both pure and loving. Riku couldn't think of two people more meant to be together than his two friends, who certainly gazed adoringly at each other. If Kairi wouldn't be the love interest, then who...?
"Well," Yuffie grinned slyly like a fox that just caught a chicken. "Sounds like you're going to be taken. I wonder who the lucky girl would be."
"I'm afraid the tea leaves don't say that." Aerith got up to leave the table. "Congratulations, Riku."
Those lumpy leaves could hardly be one hundred percent accurate, Riku thought, as he looked over at Yuffie. She still playfully grinned at him, leaning back in her chair.
Riku shook his head, smirking while he ate the rest of his sandwich. "This is going to be a long vacation."
A/N: Wow, apparently, Riku has his own fan club. Sad. Especially since he lives on the same island as all those fangirls. Then again, I devised the whole idea of him having a fan club to poke fun at rabid fangirls. I don't know--I thought it was amusing at the time. Oh, and tassegraphy is actually a study of tea leaves. Who knew? Well, I have good ole Wikipedia to thank for that one. Oh, and as for Yuffie, Riku is vaguely freaked out by her...for the moment, hehehehe! XD
Please review, guys. That's all I'm asking. And thank you, to those of you who have been reading/reviewing.