The Night Within My Eyes

Description: A sequel to Kingdom Hearts II. When a Gummi Ship crashes into Disney Castle, King Mickey calls on Sora and Riku to help a previously unknown world rid itself of some very familiar Heartless. Eventual pairing: RikuxOC, plus some SoraxKairi because they're cute. Rated T because I can't see myself ever writing K.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and its characters are the property of Square-Enix. But you knew that already.

A/N: If the characters in the flashback seem a bit OOC, it's because they're preteens. I'll be fixing them later.

Seven

Outside in the courtyard, the sun shone merrily, the birds sang to each other, and various talking animals laughed and ran about in the warm morning. Inside, Yuko lay on her bed, her arms folded underneath her head, and gazed at the ceiling. Sunlight still hurt a bit; she had hoped with the passing of time the darkness that had seeped into her would fade, but now it appeared it would not. She sighed and shifted away from the window even more.

She still couldn't figure out why she had said those things to Riku. They were her personal fears, and she would deal with them herself. But for some reason when she had spoken to Riku, they had spilled from her in spite of her defenses. At least some good had come from her embarrassing openness. He had risen soon afterwards and taken her back in so that he could add his own arguments to her fight with the King. Thanks to Riku's interference, the King had cut his required rest time for her in half. Even that had not satisfied the teenager, but the mouse had refused to give in any more.

A smile crept into Yuko's lips. It felt nice to have an ally who was stronger than she was. For one thing, it meant that no longer would everything sit solely on her shoulders. She had someone she could trust to take some of the burden - two someones actually, although she wouldn't completely believe Riku's claims about Sora until she saw proof of them for herself. The younger boy was just too cheerful, and she had trouble accepting that a warrior could occupy the same mind as the bubbling ball of joy she had seen over the past three days.

You were once cheerful, too, you know.

She frowned at herself and the unwanted thought. That had been a long time ago. Too much had changed. She willed the memory away, but voices flooded into her head, unbidden.

"Aaaugh!"

"What is it now? Can't you children see I'm trying to study?"

"But Yuko hit me with a water balloon!"

"Hey, think of it this way: now you won't have to take a bath for a week!"

"Shut up, you wench. I'll get you back for this!"

"Do you mind? You two may be content to stay on this hick world for the rest of your lives, but I'm going to Luca as soon as I can. And I need to study!"

"Aw, come on, Vinnie, put the stupid book down and have some fun before your head explodes."

"Don't call me that!"

"Zell's right, Vincent. And besides, you're not the only one who's planning on getting out of here."

"Yeah, Yukes is gonna be a SeeD and save us all from marauding space pirates - Ack! Cut it out already!"

"I told you not to call me 'Yukes'."

"Ugh, I've had enough. I'm going home."

"Okay, but someday you'll wonder where your childhood went and wish you could be back here with us."

"You tell him, Yuko. Why don't you ever hit him with balloons?"

"'Cause he punches harder than you do."

Yuko shook her head to stop the memories from invading her. She didn't want to think about her old friends right now. Vincent at least was safe, working tirelessly as Devalin's aide. But Zell had chosen to remain on Balamb to help out at his family's farm, and he had not been among the survivors who trickled into Midgar after the darkness came. She had given up all hope of ever seeing him again, at least in a form she would recognize.

A knock on the door stopped these thoughts. "Come in," she called, thankful for the distraction.

The door opened, and Kairi stepped through, a smile on her pretty face. "Hi." Her eyes wandered about the shadowy room. "Wow, it's dark in here."

"I like it that way," Yuko replied. She pushed her torso off the bed and sat up to face the other girl. "Did you want something?"

"I just came to tell you that it's time to go." Kairi came a few steps further into the room. She leaned back on one foot, hooked a wrist with two fingers, and waited for Yuko to get to her feet. "The King sent me to get you," she continued after a moment. "He and the Queen are going to see us off."

"All right. I'm ready." Yuko started to walk to the door, but when she reached Kairi, the other girl grabbed one of her hands. With a bright smile, Kairi went first as if she were leading her best friend to a wonderful surprise. In spite of her natural reaction of disgust and displeasure, Yuko had considered allowing the touch, but a sharp pain in her hand shocked her into pulling it away.

Kairi looked back in concern at the older girl's small incoherent cry of pain. "Are you okay?"

"Your hand is hot," Yuko replied, staring first at her own hand and then at Kairi.

"It is?" Kairi examined the hand that had held Yuko's, poking it with a finger and then pressing it against her cheek. She lifted her blue eyes to Yuko's black ones, and suddenly a look of sad understanding flickered over her face. It passed quickly, and the smile reinstated itself. "I think I know what happened," she said. "It's okay, not a big deal. I'll just have to remember not to hug you." She laughed brightly and, turning around, walked out of the room without any further explanation.

Confused, Yuko followed her through the castle and out to the courtyard. As they approached the Gummi hangar, she saw Riku leaning against it, much as he had been they day they met. A gentle smile spread over his face when he saw them. Yuko fought her own smile that responded at the sight of his, but failed. For some reason, she could ignore the bright, wide grins of Sora and Kairi and easily block out their laughter, but she could not stop Riku's small, subtle expressions from affecting her mood. It was probably because Sora and Kairi had repeatedly tried to draw her into their friendly circle with their conversation and their concern, while Riku showed how much he understood her need for privacy by giving her the space she craved.

It wasn't as if she didn't like the other two - they were after all painfully likable - but she didn't want any more friends right now. She didn't have a very good history concerning those she cared about.

"Did everyone else go inside already?" Kairi asked, jolting Yuko from her thoughts.

"Yeah," Riku answered. He motioned for the girls to go in first, and then he followed them down the stairs to the ship. Kairi walked directly over to Sora - with a definite bounce in her step, Yuko noted - while Riku chose to stand with the King. Yuko thought again of how he had argued in her behalf and how the mouse had given such weight to the boy's comments. Privately, she wondered how the two had created such an obviously strong relationship.

"Where's Donald?" Riku asked Sora after looking around for the duck.

"He's inside already," his friend answered. His face broke out into a mischievous grin, and he stage-whispered, "I think he didn't wanna hafta face Daisy." The female duck in question stood next to the Queen, tapping a foot in frustration. Behind Sora, Goofy clapped both hands over his mouth to keep from laughing too loudly. Yuko started to roll her eyes at the lot of them, but then she realized that Riku had done it for her.

After a series of sappy goodbyes and a bucketload of good wishes, Sora, Goofy, Kairi, Riku, and Yuko all filed into the waiting Gummi Ship. Yuko sank into a chair in the back, thankful to be on their way at last. She shut her eyes and tried to ignore the scuffling going on up front - "I was here first!" "But I haven't driven in ages!" "Too bad!"

This ship was considerably larger than Sydney's girl. It also seemed to be better equipped, both offensively and defensively. That eased most of her worries about the return trip. Even if the Heartless dogged them all the way, she felt certain that this time they would not be fighting for their lives. The thought of her flyboy brought the sadness on her again. How would Markul take the news of his loss? How would she be able to bring herself to tell him?

"Hey, Yuko, you all right?" She opened her eyes to find Sora looking down on her in concern. He had clearly lost the fight with Donald and was now kneeling in the chair in front of her with his arms draped over the back.

"I'm fine," she told him, fixing her normal cold expression back over her face.

He tilted his head at her, unconvinced. "Okay, but if you ever wanna talk about anything, I'll be glad to listen."

She sighed, tiredly. "Sora, look, I appreciate your desire to be friends, but I'm not really in the market for any right now." She gazed up at his bright blue eyes and tried to force some of her reality into him. "The people I befriend tend to die, and I'd hate to see that happen to you."

To her surprise, instead of backing off, he smiled. "Yeah, but we're not gonna die. Donald, Goofy, and I have an annoying habit of sticking around. Riku and Kairi, too. We've already fought the darkness, twice. I'm not worried about a third. We'll free your worlds, you'll see."

Yuko looked away, flustered by his confidence and his optimism. "Well, maybe so," she responded, quietly. "If we can, I'll be happy to be your friend once it's over, but for right now, I'd like to just stay an ally."

Sora frowned, unhappy with this response. He opened his mouth to continue the argument, but Riku's voice stopped him. "Let it go, Sora." Sora turned his head to look at his friend who had taken a seat in the back row a few chairs down from Yuko. Riku glanced briefly at her before returning his eyes to Sora. He continued simply, "Wounds need time to heal."

Sora considered this for a moment; then he shrugged, turned around, and sat down. Riku flashed a small smile at Yuko before leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. Yuko leaned back as well, grateful once again for the older boy's interference. Unfortunately, she wasn't sure whether what he had implied was true. A broken heart would heal with time, that she knew. But what of a heart that had been emptied? Could it recover and again be what it once was?

Could such a thing be considered a heart at all?

Yuko turned her face to the wall and waited for the ship to take her back home.