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: And now for Step ... aw, heck, I've lost count.

Fourteen

Once Vincent had awakened, Sora and Riku had helped him walk to the Midgar Garden, and now he rested in what had once been Yuko's bed. She had immediately dragged a chair over to sit beside him, her face stating without words that nothing would tear her from him. Vincent had quickly drifted off to sleep, and Sora and Riku had left Yuko alone with him.

At Sora's insistence, the two boys wandered through the Garden together, exploring its many rooms and corridors. They ran into several groups of mid-level Heartless, but the enemies were nothing that seasoned Keyblade wielders could not handle. For the rest of the day, they investigated the dormitories, several classrooms, what had probably been the Headmaster's quarters, the library, the cafeteria, and the gymnasium. Sora challenged Riku to a game of basketball at the last location, but Riku declined. It just didn't feel right to him.

Walking around the Garden had given a name to the nagging feeling of inconsistency that had bothered him for a while now. Half of Midgar had turned into a war zone, but the only thing that showed it was the lack of people. Nothing in the Garden was missing, broken, or even scratched. They had seen an outfit laid out on a bed, waiting for its owner to return. Several classrooms had had notes still written on the blackboards. In the library, they had found a book lying open with a pen and a half-used index card sitting atop it. A sink in the kitchen of the cafeteria had been filled with water, and dishes sat in piles on either side of it - one dirty, one clean. As if everyone is standing outside for some kind of drill and they'll be back any second.

But then, the Heartless weren't interested in raiding towns for treasure or creating destruction in order to kill soldiers. All they wanted was hearts, and they didn't need to loot or destroy in order to get them. And if all Even and Ienzo wanted was knowledge, then they too would care more about gaining people to use as experiments than about obtaining wealth or power.

"Whoa! Hold on!"

Riku suddenly felt himself being tugged back behind the corner he had been about to turn. He glanced at Sora in confused annoyance to find the younger boy grinning madly. "Yuko's sitting on that bench over there," he whispered excitedly.

Riku leaned his head to the side just enough to take a peek. "So she is," he replied to Sora, still annoyed. "What of it?"

"She looks unhappy," his friend stated, and though Riku would have deemed it impossible, Sora's grin grew even bigger. "Maybe you should go cheer her up."

Riku's eyes widened in surprise, causing Sora to press a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. "What? How did you - ?"

"Aw, c'mon, Riku," Sora teased. "I may be kind of slow about that sort of thing, but I'm not completely stupid."

A sly smile spread over Riku's face as a certain memory came to him. "Kairi's been tutoring you, has she?" The smile turned to a satisfied smirk when Sora instantly blushed bright red.

He waved embarrassed hands in front of him. "Hey, that's not the point! We're not talking about me and Kairi. We're talking about you and Yuko."

Riku sighed. His eyes flickered briefly to the sad figure on the bench. "Sora, there is no 'me and Yuko'."

"Well, whose fault is that?" Sora was grinning again, and before Riku could stop him, he had grabbed the older boy by the arms and practically thrown him around the corner. "Don't worry," he added before slipping away. "I won't watch … much."

"Sora, I'm gonna kill you," Riku hissed, but the other boy had gone. He briefly considered dashing back around the corner again, but then Yuko lifted her head and spotted him. She smiled. It was small, gentle, and sad, but it made his breath catch and his throat constrict. All thoughts of running away and of pummeling Sora into next week quickly left his mind.

"Hi," she said in a low voice as he approached. "Wandering around again? Don't you ever get any sleep?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he returned. She made room for him on the bench, and he sat down next to her. "You should get some rest."

She shook her head, and her hair fanned out a bit behind her from the motion. Riku blinked as he realized she had unbound her hair. He had never seen it out of that tight, constricting ponytail before.

"I can't right now," she replied to his comment. "I'm just so … I just can't."

"Just so what?" he prompted gently. "What's wrong?"

After a long pause, she murmured, "Lots of things."

"Pick one. I'll listen."

She smiled a little at that. After another pause, she began, "Even said he and Ienzo can find me easily because of the darkness in my heart. I was wondering if I should leave because of that. If I'm around, you and Sora will never be able to sneak up on anyone."

"Don't worry about that," Riku reassured her immediately. "I think Sora wanted a sneak attack at first so that they wouldn't know about him and me until we had engaged them at least once. Well, that's already happened, and they know, so it doesn't matter anymore."

"Okay," she said, but she didn't sound very relieved.

"What else has you so upset?" he prodded.

She inhaled very slowly, closing her eyes as she did so. Then, she opened them again and said, "Vincent."

Vincent. A sharp pain struck Riku in the chest. He knew he shouldn't be jealous - he didn't want to be jealous - but the way she had run to the tall, tortured boy, disregarding her own life in the process, and the way she had clutched at him and cried over him had tied Riku's stomach into terrible knots. He forced himself to say, "What about Vincent?"

"He wants to leave. We talked for awhile when he woke up. He said he doesn't understand everything that's going on inside him right now. The Heartless left bits of darkness within him, and he doesn't know if he can control it all. He doesn't want me to be around him just in case he can't. He wants to go off on his own until he figures it all out."

Good. But Riku's conscience chastised him severely for that selfish thought. She was clearly suffering at the prospect of being separated from her close friend so soon. He found himself saying, "I bet Sora would talk to him for you and try to convince him to stay. And who knows? Maybe after he rests a bit more, he'll change his mind on his own."

She nodded, but her sadness intensified. She wrapped her arms around herself tightly. "What's wrong with me?" she whispered hoarsely. "Why can't I stop shaking? I'm just so … scared."

"Scared?" he echoed. His hands ached to touch her and comfort her, but he kept them where they were. Everything she had said, everything she had done was pointing in one direction. Don't say it out loud! his mind screamed, but once the thought had risen, he could not stop it. "Is it because … you love him?"

She laughed gently, and her next words plunged him into despair. "Of course I love him." But then she continued, "Just as I love Sydney and Zell, and now Sora and Kairi … and you. But if you're suggesting that I'm in love with him, no. He's madly in love with a girl he met in Luca practically the day he moved there, and as for me … well … I know how futile it would be for me to fall in love with anyone right now."

The relief had washed over him in great waves, but her finishing statement calmed them substantially. "You say that like you can control it," he commented. When she merely shrugged, he added, "'The heart is too complex to predict or control.' Who said that to me? Probably DiZ. Sounds like something he would say."

His eyes traveled over her as she sat there huddled within her own arms, biting her lip. "It'll be all right, Yuko," he told her. "I promise you it will." He felt that familiar desire in his hands and arms and this time did not suppress it. Vincent was no longer a preferred rival after all. Carefully, Riku reached out a hand and placed it on Yuko's shoulder to comfort her.

To his surprise, she shivered slightly at his touch and screwed her eyes up. "Riku," she whispered hurriedly, "forgive me."

"For wh- ?" The force of her body colliding into his abruptly ended his question and nearly knocked him over as well. She buried her face in his neck and wrapped her arms around his upper chest. Her shoulders began to shake as if she had started crying again, and her arms gripped him as if he were the only thing keeping her alive. For several seconds, he could not catch his breath from sheer amazement, but then, he gently laid his arms around her. One hand lifted to stroke her hair soothingly, and he rested a cheek against the top of her head.

He lost track of time, sitting there and holding her. Eventually, the tremors in her body stopped, but she did not pull back. Content to keep her there as long as she wanted, he listened to her breathing as it changed from jerky and shallow to deep and smooth once again. When she finally did move away, he had to stop the small noise of disappointment that rose in his throat.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, her eyes downcast and embarrassed.

"Don't be."

"It's just that I know you're like me and you wouldn't normally allow something like that, and I wouldn't normally need something like that, but for some reason I really did right then, so I'm really sorry and I really appreciate you letting me and -"

"Yuko," he said, cutting off the mad flow of words. He stretched out a hand and lifted up her chin so she would look at him. "It's okay. I don't mind."

Slowly, a smile spread over her face. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Now how about we both go get some rest?" He got to his feet and held out a hand to help her up. She took it with a small nod.

As they started walking back to the dormitory together, Riku noticed a figure hiding behind the door of a nearby classroom. It grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. Riku shook his head slightly and continued on with Yuko, privately resolving to give Sora a good thumping in the morning.