A/N: And once again it's time to thank my lovely reviewers, you each get 10 imaginary points, feel free to use it to buy something from here, like an imaginary cookie, that Riku made… I don't know if it's safe to eat though…
Thanks KH meerkats I'm glad you luffed it.
Thanks SimpleNClean92 I'm excited I'm able to do the festival part.
Thanks Princess Kaira of Mirana I'm glad you were able to use the points for something! Well yeah, apparently no one really knows what Riku's going to do with the guitar… But Ammi most likely will sing that is if she doesn't get shy…
Here's a little explanation as to why Amaterasu decided not to let Riku comfort her.
"You were mere seconds away from getting ki-"
"I know that!" Amaterasu said covering her face with a pillow again. It was really soft and it smelled like her shampoo. Kairi sighed for a small moment and pulled the pillow away from Amaterasu's face.
"You were supposed to let him do it, that's what the script said…So why didn't you?"
"…Well…" Amaterasu scratched the back of her head staring out her trailer window. "Two words…"
"Which are?" Kairi asked attentively. "Come on, we have a couple of minutes before we have to go rehearse for the next chapter…"
"Fan girls…"
"That's the worst excuse you've come up with all day…"
"Well it's two words, isn't it?"
She's not really off the hook yet, the answer will be revealed probably in this chapter, so you have to read it!
My disclaimer is in the first chapter, and also the song/s mentioned in this and in future stories/chapters I will say this once they aren't mine and go to their respective artists.
On with the story!
Chapter Twelve: Festival Part I
"Are you guys excited, today's the festival!" Kairi said smiling brightly at the brunette and the silver haired teen. "Come on you guys, at least pretend your happy…" she said whining a bit at the slightly serious faces of the two boys.
"I'm tired as hell…" Riku said blinking slightly. In fact he had been excited for this day too, which was really rare for him, but since he had a feeling he might see his 'close friend' he decided to try and cheer up.
"Kairi, no offence or anything, but I'm kinda broke because of you…" Sora said remising a bit. He had opened his plain looking wallet to discover he only had 100 munny in it. "Hey Riku, have you had any luck trying to find a guitar?"
Riku looked up at his brown spiky haired friend and shook his head slightly. He sighed for a moment and tried to think again of where he could possibly find a guitar, a lot of places around the area of Traverse Town didn't sell the kind of guitar he was looking for, it was just a regular acoustic guitar, and apparently all they had were electric guitars.
"Maybe, if you ask, you could get one of the performers to lend you theirs," Kairi suggested before asking another question. "Why do you want a guitar?"
"For something…" he said musing over the fact of what he should do. Sora and Kairi just stared at him for a little while longer, trying to think of all the possible reasons as to why in the world Riku would want a guitar. "Now if you guys are done staring at me… You want help me find a guitar or not?"
"I guess we have some time to kill…" Sora said laughing nervously. "I'm just kidding of course we'd like to help you find a guitar."
In a hotel in Traverse Town…
"This is Aerith Gainsborough," Amaterasu said to the woman in her mid thirties. Aerith boxed slightly at the mention of her name.
The woman extended a gentle hand to Aerith and told her, her name. She was Riku's mother, and her name was Leila Fonovi. Both Amaterasu and Aerith could see where Riku got his manners, not to mention his eyes. They didn't mind saying that she was a beautiful women, because it was true.
If one were to guess they could say she was a model, or something close to one. Truth be told Mrs. Fonovi was Miss Destiny Islands of '89 to '92, it had been hard work keeping that title hers for four long years.
"And this young man," Amaterasu motioned to Cloud as he got up and walked towards Mrs. Fonovi. "His name is Cloud Strife." Cloud shook her hand and she returned the gesture with a kind welcome.
"How has your wrist been, Mrs. Fonovi?" Amaterasu asked as Mrs. Fonovi invited them to sit in the living room.
"Well…" she looked at the black item around her left wrist, it was smaller than a cast. "I guess you could say it's better, thanks for asking, Amaterasu."
Aerith and Cloud both looked at Amaterasu bit stunned by what the woman just said. She rarely gave out her name to anyone. But since this was Riku's mother she could be trusted which was a good sign to them.
"Sorry I couldn't have gotten to your house sooner…" Amaterasu said feeling a bit guilty about the accident. Mrs. Fonovi just dismissed the whole sentence with a soft sentence.
"You don't have to be sorry, the important thing is that we're safe, right?"
"You guys!" Moegami called out from the front door, he was out of breath but yet he still managed to call out to everyone in the house.
It had been roughly about a week since Sora and the others left. Things went back to their normal routine at least until a storm came to the area. Tachigami walked out calmly looking at her little brother. She asked him what was that matter.
"Heart…" he panted for a moment. "The Heartless…"
Yomigami went downstairs, managing to hear the last word his youngest brother said. "Are you sure?" he asked him. Moegami nodded. "Where's Kazegami?"
"He's out evacuating some of the people in the area…" Moegami said leaning against the doorway for support.
"He can't do it by himself…" Tachigami said with some concern as she looked at her twin.
"Where's Amaterasu?" Yomigami asked his brother and sister. They didn't know where she was at that point. "If she comes back tell her to help Kazegami…" and with that he grabbed a jacket and headed off into the storm.
It was raining heavily, almost to the point where it felt like hail. The winds were howling, ripping trees clear off the ground. Cars on the street were wailing as their alarms were set off, it was very chaotic that day.
Amaterasu had noticed something wasn't right and ran back home as fast as she could. She noticed that everyone was outside, but that Yomigami was missing. Tachigami had informed her that Kazegami needed help evacuating some of the people in the area.
"Where is he at?"
At that point Heartless started to sprout up from the ground like those annoying weeds you see on your front lawn. Tachigami called her Keyblade forth and hurled it to three Heartless, they vanished leaving behind a sort of black mist.
"Go!" Tachigami said slicing through another Heartless. "Help evacuate people!"
Amaterasu ran down the lawn, and the first place she decided to evacuate was the block on which Riku had lived on. Five of the Neo Shadow Heartless blocked her path, and she muttered under her breath.
"I don't have time for you!" she said noticing that the Heartless stopped in their track, she could hear them make a horrible hissing sound. She liked the little Heartless, the ones called Shadows, not the bigger one that blocked her path.
She brought out both of her Keyblades, and noticed a couple of the Heartless move back a bit. At that point more came out from under the shadows of nearby cars. It was still raining heavily, and even with her jacket it was still hard fighting like this.
A couple of Neo Shadows jumped into the air ready to strike her down with their claws. She threw her Anima Keyblade and let her Rapture Keyblade block an oncoming attack. The only thing she could remembering seeing was Mrs. Fonovi's limp body by her front porch and a Heartless fleeing the scene.
"There's a piano in the main dining room of the hotel," Mrs. Fonovi said looking at Cloud and Aerith. "You two play?"
The two of them nodded and looked at Amaterasu. She finally came back from la-la-land. The festival was today, which meant that it was suppose to be a happy day. All four of them got up from the couch and Mrs. Fonovi directed them past the pale yellow hallway and down into the dining area. It was closed around 1 o'clock until 3 in the afternoon.
"Wait, wait…" Amaterasu said running to the grand piano. She sat down on the piano bench and let her fingers gently touch the ivory keys. "This was the first piece I learned to play…" it was none other than Chopsticks. "I played it this one time at a learning center, and some lady made me stop… I remember she was wearing a red blazer, and she looked sort of old. She told me to get my hands off of the keys and I remember hearing the lid of the piano close with this loud thud, but she let some of the kids from her program play with it, I remember feeling a bit mad at her, and embarrassed…" she had finished playing the piece and looked at the others just sitting by the piano.
"That was mean of her…" Aerith said frowning a bit. "How old were you when that happened?"
"16…" she said letting her fingers play something random.
That was a very long time ago, that was about thirty years ago, but no one would've have guessed it due to her appearance. Amaterasu and her family did not age one bit for the past thirty years, due to the actions of their parents, but that will be revealed in due time, still knowing that the siblings wouldn't dare tell anyone.
"Hey, Cloud what about that motif you were playing last time?" the girl tried to remember the name of it. "Wasn't it called, um…? Darn…"
Cloud, he took off his black gloves and moved his hands so that they hovered over the F sharp and the C sharp key. He played the motif with such grace it was hard to believe he was ever in SOLDIER. Aerith watched his skilled fingers; each note that was hit flowed into her heart.
"It's a theme for…" Amaterasu said gently smiling. "He-" she noticed that Cloud looked at her slightly, and she laughed nervously. "Fine, I won't tell…"
"I want to know…" Aerith said pleading with Cloud. "Come on, Cloud… Please?"
Mrs. Fonovi was enjoying her time hearing Cloud play the motif. It was something he constructed all by himself. Cloud told Aerith that it had been a birthday present for someone.
"Maybe we should start playing Santa Fe…" Cloud said as he finally finished playing the motif. "You have the sheet music, Aerith?"
In another room…
"Hey do you hear that?" Yuffie looked at Leon for a moment, he had his eyes closed trying to think of something. "Squall!" she said whining to him again. "Geez… Leon!" he opened his eyes and looked at her for a moment.
"What?" he asked her.
"Someone's playing the piano…" Yuffie said scratching the back of her head for a moment. "You wanna check it out?" she saw that he didn't answer. "Come on it'll be fun…. Please?" she asked giving him a big smile. She tugged on his arm.
"All right…" Leon said sighing for a moment as Yuffie smiled in triumph. He noticed Yuffie's shoes for a moment. "You'd better tie them, you're going to trip…"
"No I'm not, and even if I do I'll catch myself, I have great reflexes."
They reached the end of the pale yellow hallway and heard the sound of piano chords and a voice singing. Yuffie made a mad dash to the dining room and just like that she could feel her footstep on a shoelace, and as much as she wanted to she couldn't control her other leg from moving forward.
The ninja closed her eyes tightly as she was bracing herself to hit the floor. Leon covered his eyes with one hand shaking his head, and caught Yuffie as she stumbled forward. She was going to hit the floor, she was… Well Yuffie opened her eyes and noticed she didn't hit the floor, she was more worried about her shirt at this point, she thought it was going to rip or something.
"Tie your shoes…" Leon said letting go of Yuffie. "Or else I'll let you fall next time…"
"Is that why you didn't catch me last time?!" there was a thundering note coming out from the piano, it was a sour note. "You let me fall on purpose…? Hey you know that's pretty rude…" she told him.
"It's also rude to yell while some people are trying to practice!" they heard Amaterasu yell from across the area.
"It's rude to yell, period!" Yuffie answered back.
"Then why are you yelling?" Aerith's voice echoed a bit.
"Cause every time we touch I get this feeling…" Amaterasu's vice trailed off echoing for a moment.
Yuffie ran up to Amaterasu and as the girl turned around slightly the only thing she could see was an embarrassed ninja pounce on her. Cloud, Aerith, and Mrs. Fonovi had moved away before they ended up getting dragged into that. A shoe had gone midair landing with a sharp thud on the piano.
"I won't sing it then!" Amaterasu said tearing Yuffie's hand away from her. "Ack!" she strained under Yuffie's weight. "Get off of me… Not offence Yuffie but you're heavy…"
"Hey take that back!" Yuffie said pouting as she sat on her.
"What you want me to lie… You don't exactly weigh 100 pounds you know…" Amaterasu felt her spine giving away. "My spine…" she howled. "I can't breathe…" she said feeling the air in her lungs leave. At that point she stopped moving. Little did the ninja know she was just playing opossum.
"Why do stars fall down from the sky…?" Amaterasu sang out, and Yuffie's face grew red with embarrassment. "I have that one on tape… Ya know Leon might accidentally get that tape one day…"
"I thought you said you got rid of that tape…" Yuffie hissed into the girl's ear.
"I did, but what I didn't say was that I have copies… Why don't you just tell him how you feel?"
"Same reason you don't tell Riku…"
"Hey!" Amaterasu pushed Yuffie off of her. "That's completely different!" she said whispering harshly.
R i k u
It's 4:49 PM and we still haven't found an acoustic guitar, I think we've gone into about ten different music stores. The festival doesn't start until about 8, and yet I still think I won't have that guitar in at all.
"Do you really think they'll let me use their guitar?"
"I think so…" Kairi said looking at me for a moment. "I'm still curious as to why you need the guitar."
"You'll see…" I said smiling for a moment.
I thought back to home, I use to have a guitar, I'm not sure if Mom was able to take it with her when the Heartless evaded, but I know when we restore the world's everything is going to be back in its place. All the places in the District area were getting ready for the festival, placing their items outside for sale and stuff.
Sora was off buying some pretzels, of course I lent him some money, since he was complaining about not having enough money. Kairi ended up taking my headphones away so that I would end up having to put up with Sora's whining.
"I didn't know she had Asian Kung Fu Generation in here…" Kairi said lowering the volume on the mp3 player. "I love them!"
"They're alright…" I said thinking back to only one song I like from them. "I like Blue Train, but that's about it."
We ended up killing some time just walking around the area again, I wasn't thinking about the guitar anymore. What I was thinking about was what I would do if I ran into Ammi while I was with Sora and Kairi.
I know that eventually I'd have to tell them, or she might telling them herself, after all after the festival 'we' have to talk to them.
For right now I'm not going to think about anything, I am however going to finish eating this Yan-Yan. For those who don't know what Yan-Yan is, it's this little container with little crunchy yeast bars, and you get to dip them in a container that either has vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry.
Personally I love chocolate, and I've been eating these things since I was a little kid. Besides chocolate is an anti-depressant, well technically it's dark bittersweet chocolate that's the anti-depressant. The only reason I know this because of my mom, she use to tell me things like this.
Something rang out from my front pocket and I looked down having a Yan-Yan stick in my mouth. I placed the container down on this little brown stool near a store and answered the call.
"Hewo?" it's hard talking with food in your mouth.
"Riku?" the voice called out laughing a bit.
"Awi?!"
"Are you talking with your mouth full?" she asked as I gulped it all really fast.
"No!" I said answering quickly. "No, I'm not…"
"Hmm… So, how have you been?" she asked. I could hear a piano in the background.
"I'm all right… Hey who's playing the piano?" I picking up the container and sitting down on the patio area of the place.
"Ah… Um well, it's your mom…" she said.
"Mom? She can play the piano?" I asked almost dropping my container. "Ah…" I caught the container before the sticks fell.
"I taught her how to play Chopsticks…. So are you going to be at the festival?"
"Of course…" I said biting off the little snack stick. "Are you?"
"Yeah, absolutely!" she said, she sounded happy.
"I'll see you there then, right?"
"Most definitely…" I heard someone yelling in the background. "I don't know… Hold on…It's a date…" I heard her sigh softly after that, and someone yelled at her again. "Anyway I have to go Riku, Tachigami needs help. Bye bye, see you later tonight!"
"Uh…" I didn't hear any noise after that, and well the only thing that brought me back from my daze was the fact that my snack fell on the ground, but for now I didn't really care. "A date?" I asked myself looking at the flashing screen on my cell phone.
In the main hall of the hotel…
"It's a date…" she repeated again. "'Fechado' means dated…" Amaterasu said looking back at her older sister. "'Fecha' means date, remember?" she corrected her older sibling's Spanish.
"Oh yeah…" she said smiling slightly. "So are you done practicing?" she asked looking at Cloud and Aerith for a moment as they finished practicing the song Santa Fe. There was a small piano stationed in the main hall of the motel, which was better for the acoustics of the instrument.
"Yeah…" all three of them said, sounding rather relieved at the fact that it was all done.
"Don't go getting cold feet now…" Aerith said poking Amaterasu on her nose. "If you do I'm coming after you with Cloud's First Sword, got it?"
"Can you even pick that thing up?" Amaterasu said dodging a playful punch by the flower maiden.
"It's five o'clock you guys… You should probably start getting ready or something, the festival will be starting at 8… okay?" Tachigami said walking back into the area.
"Come on, let's go Amaterasu!" Aerith said grabbing the girl by the hand.
"Hey, whoa!" she felt Aerith pull her out from her chair, and led her deeper in to the building. "Cloud!" she looked back at the 'lone wolf' as she called. "Control your girlfriend!"
"Struggling makes it worse…" he said to her.
Aerith really was bent on making Amaterasu shine today. She found Yuffie in the dining area, pigging out on little pastries, which apparently Leon was going to pay for. 'Pay for' meant that in Yuffie's mind that she would just give him the bill and run off.
"How cute…" Yuffie said opening the door to Aerith's room. "Ammi's going on a date with Riku. It's about time you've had one, you're WAY over due…"
"What's that suppose to mean!?" Amaterasu called out to the ninja.
"Xehanort ring a bell?" Yuffie said, at that point the whole room was filled with silence. She gasped slightly at the words that came from her mouth. "I'm sorry, Amaterasu, I totally forgot… I'm sorry!"
"No…" she said shaking her head slightly. "It's all right… I mean you forgot, so it's only natural…"
"Let's just try and let that go…" Aerith said leading Amaterasu to her closet. "First of all, we have to get you some festive clothing! Come on, what do you say?"
Amaterasu just looked at Aerith as if she had just spoken to her in Chinese or something. Yuffie tried really hard not to laugh at the look on the girl's face, but it was hard not to.
"Wait… I'm wearing a skirt?" Amaterasu said looking at the article of clothing laid out for her. "I hate wearing skirts…" she muttered to herself.
There was a knock at the doorway and Tachigami entered the area. She smiled sweetly at her sister and offered her help, since it was going to be a challenge to get her younger sister to comply with the whole wardrobe change.
"Treat it like that dance you had with what's-his-face…" Tachigami said closing the door behind her and walking forward.
Amaterasu shuddered at the fact she remembered that day. "I think that day has been emotionally burned into my brain…" she said exaggerating the last word.
"Stop complaining…" Yuffie said handing Ammi the clothing Aerith picked out for her. She rushed her into the bathroom. "Don't take to long changing, we don't have a lot of time, okay?"
"Fine… But I won't like it…" Amaterasu said closing the door to the bathroom. "Did I ever tell you how conservative I am?" she said, apparently she didn't really like the clothing handed to her.
At the hotel entrance…
It was seven o'clock now and Riku was waiting outside for him mom. As if his prayers had been answered, his guitar was salvaged from the whole wreckage of the Heartless attack. He had received a call from his mom two minutes after his talk with Amaterasu, and he sat by a bench near the hotel entrance.
Riku was wearing a black collared shirt with a red tie, and black pants with black shoes.
His mother stepped out of the window revolving door, wearing a black stylish dress. She greeted her son with a long hug and kisses on his cheek and forehead. She smiled at him and held him again. Her boy was equally happy and glad to see her.
"Here's your guitar, son." She said in a gentle tone handing him the instrument. "You know if it wasn't for Amaterasu the guitar would've probably had the same fate as the islands."
"Did you say Amaterasu?" Riku was a bit in shock. How did his mother come across that name?
"Yeah, you know Selma. I thought she told me that you knew…" she said the last part to herself.
"No, I mean yeah I know, but I didn't think you'd know…" he said laughing nervously. "Has she told you anything else?"
"Not really, she's still the same quiet girl as always. Speaking of which…" she looked back at the hotel. "She's about ready to come down…" she noticed one of the hotel windows went dark.
Riku gulped slightly as he could feel the pain in his heart come back, but this time there was a mild cold feeling slowly working its way up. He knew that once he saw her that his heart would feel as though it was on fire, he didn't know how he knew, but he just did. 'The paopu fruit, it really does intertwine destinies together. I never would have thought that it was true, but it is…'
Tachigami stepped out first from the revolving door, she was wearing some black Capri pants, used for parties and a black and white striped shirt. Moegami was wearing a light green long sleeved shirt, with a slightly tanned colored vest, and matching pants with brown shoes. His hair was still the same untidy mess as it always was.
Kazegami was wearing a white plain cotton shirt with blue jeans and a black scarf around his neck with gloves that only covered the knuckles and not the fingers. Gekigami wore the same thing, but instead of blue jeans he wore black jeans.
Yomigami on the other hand had the same hair style from Kairi and Riku's last encounter with them. He wore khaki colored pants and a white collared shirt with striped fishnet like clothing on his arms.
"Ammi, get out here!" Gekigami said walking back to the revolving door and dragging out his little sister.
"Are you sure I look okay?" she asked her brother again for the tenth time.
"Yes, now come out!" and with that he pulled her out the door and she stumbled forward.
'She looks…' Riku could feel his mouth open slightly, he never saw her wear something like that, so he was surprised to see that type of clothing on her.
Amaterasu frowned slightly as she looked back at Gekigami. She rubbed the back of her head slightly and sighed looking down for a moment.
The girl had decided to wear, or rather, she was only given the option of wearing a black frilly skirt, that was longer on one side, with a white sash around her waist. The shirt was a white V-cut blouse with pastel blue and black designs on it, with matching shoes.
"Hey where are Cloud and the others?" she asked looking back at Tachigami.
"They're still getting ready. You know how they are…" Tachigami said fixing her hair a bit. "Aren't you going to get a jacket?" she paused for a moment. "If I send you back in there you might not come out again… I'll lend you mines, okay?" her sister nodded in reply with a slight sigh.
Amaterasu looked back and noticed Mrs. Fonovi talking with her son. She waved at them slightly and they returned the gesture. She noticed he had a guitar strapped to his back, and titled her head in slight confusion.
First District…
"They're saving our places?" Amaterasu asked Riku.
"Yeah…" he said adjusting the strap on his guitar. "They're probably going to have us up in the front."
Amaterasu just sighed and scrunched up her nose, she didn't really like noisy areas, but since it was a festival after all, she would at least try and comply with it once.
The music portion of the festival, which was in Second District would take up two hours, and then after that it was pretty much whatever the people wanted.
"The fireworks are going off around 12…" Riku said walking ahead, noticing Amaterasu stopped for a moment. "What's wrong?"
"Ah, well…" she fiddled with the frills on her skirt. "I, uh… I don't want to see them…"
"Ah come on, I mean… Sure you fought with Kairi…" Riku paused as Amaterasu pouted for a moment. "Ok, yeah I can why… Sora's a forgiving guy. He'll accept your apology."
Amaterasu walked past Riku for a moment and turned to face him. "It's not Sora I'm worried about it's Kairi… Can I just stay here, and wait?"
"Stop doing that, running away from your problems. That won't solve it. Just face the music." Riku said walking up to her and taking her by the hand. "Sometimes you do act like a little kid."
"Sometimes I wish I was a little kid…" she muttered under her breath as Riku dragged her with the crowd that was going to Second District.
The dancing portion of the whole festival was starting to go underway with a DJ that Sora believed to look exactly like Axel, but his name was DJ Alex. Kairi saw Riku arriving inside Second District, and waved him down. She called out to the two of them and they came, but she noticed that Riku's guest was pulling back a bit.
"Just tell them right now…" Riku said looking back at his guest.
"Bite me…" she muttered shaking her head slightly.
"You're being stubborn…"
"Hey you guys!" Sora said smiling at them. " Selma, how have you been?"
'Sora's kind of dense…' Amaterasu thought to herself for a moment, and shook Sora's hand. "I've been doing pretty well, how about you?"
"Good!" Sora said calling Kairi over to them.
"You don't really have to…" she stopped as she saw Kairi. "Kairi… Hi!" she said giving her a big smile.
Kairi didn't say anything, her brain was trying to say it was Selma, but her heart knew it was Amaterasu, at that point she asked the question to the obvious answer.
"You're her aren't you?" she asked a bit angrily pulling Sora slightly back.
"I'd be lying if I said 'no'," she said rubbing the back of her head.
"Why didn't you…? Out of all the… Why'd you have to hit me so hard?!"
"I can't go soft on you!" she said as if Kairi had just said something horribly terrible.
"Wait! You're Amaterasu?" Sora asked finally letting the evidence dawn on him.
"Duh!" the others said frowning at Sora.
"Let's just forget this, okay?" Riku said trying to calm down Kairi. "At least let's try and have a good time."
R i k u
Things were going underway, that and well we ended up placing the guitar in back of the stage that the turntables were placed on. With that the music went under way, a lot of techno songs were being put on, at the request of the DJ, who really does look a lot like Axel. Maybe Nobodies don't fade away into darkness but they find a new life or something like that.
It looked like Kairi and Amaterasu patched things up rather quickly, Kairi was usually the forgiving type, and she said she owed Amaterasu for saving me back there on Isla. The first song that was 'The Road to Lost Withiel' by BT, it was just techno rather than anything else.
It took me a while to get Amaterasu to dance, but in the end she did, because I had to bribe her with something. I have to end up buying her some ice-cream after this, so I shouldn't forget.
The others finally came and they were all dancing, a lot of people were in the area, and there were lanterns everywhere, streamers, and a lot of other festival items. The place was really bright.
A couple of songs into the whole thing, and I had to take a break and Amaterasu kept on dancing with her family this time. It was nice seeing her laugh and having a good time. She walked over the area I was sitting at and pulled me forward, she was coaxing me to go and dance with her again.
It didn't take that long for my response and she seemed glad. We ended up dancing next to Sora and Kairi and we would switch dance partners once in a while. The music was loud and there was a fog machine and strobe lights, just really loud and flashy.
"My heart goes boom, boom, boom," Kairi and Amaterasu were singing along to the song the DJ put on.
'Boum-Boum' a song written by Enigma, which was alright, in my mind. I pulled Amaterasu closer when the lyrics 'I want you, just you,' came on.
"Cause I wanna be your lover…"
"Till the end of our lives…" Amaterasu sang the rest of it for me.
Kairi and Ammi ended up singing the whole song while we were all dancing, and Sora was also enjoying himself as he was able to dip Kairi on the last note of the song. 'Kiss Kiss' by DJ Cammy came out and we all focused our attention as the DJ sang out whole song. We all in turn sang along with him, moving a bit to the beat of the music.
To be honest a lot of DJ Cammy songs were coming up, a lot of which I didn't know. The first hour was done and the DJ asked if any people were willing to participate in sing some songs. To my surprise Amaterasu raised her hand and dragged Kairi, and she ended up dragging me into the whole thing.
The song the DJ wanted us to sing was one I knew. 'In the Shadow, In the Light,' written by Enigma.
I promise you, for all my life
I'll be Always on your side
In the shadow, in the light.
I'll follow you, wherever life goes
But I'll always be aside
In the shadow, in the light.
But if we don't understand…
Hell is happy, heaven is sad
And that's the result of our brain…
Insane…
Caravan of life
By day and by night
Every tile's a part of life
If it's shadow, or if it's light
I promise you, even when the tide is high
I'll be always on your side
In the shadow, in the light
Amaterasu pulled away after the song was done and she was seen talking to the DJ and he was nodding to whatever she was saying.
"Hey, listen up!" the DJ said through his mike. "We got a special request here from this young girl." The DJ said, the crowd was silent. "It's ' Santa Fe' by Angela Aki." At that point Kairi and I walked downstage.
A m a t e r a s u
This was it, I don't feel nervous now, but I know once I start singing that I might just forget the words. The good thing is though that the DJ has the piano version of it, which will make me feel a bit more comfortable. 'A lot of people are going to be watching though…' I thought to myself. The piano melody was starting and a paced myself.
"He spoke my language in this foreign land. Familiar secrets shared in a sinful bed. Imagination flowing through his ancient hands. He painted just my fantasy in red, bright red…" I was singing my little hart out, and at that point I started to feel my stage fright leave me.
Those five minutes went by pretty fast, and I was glad I did it. I could see my friends cheer loudly and it made me feel good. I handed the mike back to the DJ and I walked down stage and Riku ended up kissing my cheek for a moment.
"That was great!" he said walking me back to where Kairi and Sora were at.
"You know I really wished they would've up some J-Rock or something…" I said thinking back to the songs in my mp3 player.
With that the dance was over, which was a good thing because my feet were hurting. We all went our separate ways and decided we'd met back by 12 back in a place called Traverse Park, that's where the fireworks were going to go off.
Riku got his guitar and he took me to First District and he bought some ice-cream. I had a really bad carving for sea-salt ice-cream, and well I got my wish. I smiled at him slightly and lightly tasted it, feeling some weird tinge in my heart it was warm.
"Hey…" he called out softly. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah…" I said still trying to figure out why my heart felt warm. Heartburn? I didn't eat anything spicy so we can rule out heartburn. "Let's get going to the park…" I said pulling him along.
He picked out a spot that was under a giant tree. The sky was very beautiful, the landscape of the stars shining and the moon, it was all peaceful. I heard Riku strum his guitar, and it sounded out of tune.
"Sorry, I hit it when I was carrying it out…" I said finishing my ice-cream.
"Thanks…" he said.
"For what?"
"Well you didn't have to save the guitar." He said tuning the instrument. "Oh, hey you know how earlier you want J-Rock?"
"Yeah…" I said arching an eyebrow in confusion.
"Listen…" he said strumming the chords to a familiar. "Saikou sokudo no seimeitai enerugii…"
"Hey that's Raion."
He shushed me for a moment and I listened to the song he played. I only heard him sing one other time, and that was at the dance, surprisingly he did sing pretty well. I watched his fingers on the fret, and he played with almost the same style as Cloud did when he played the piano.
"That was beautiful Riku!" I said smiling at him. Even at night I could feel in my heart that he had blushed. "Why are you blushing?"
"I'm not…" he said looking away for a moment.
With Reeve and the others…
"Wait, so you're saying you're willing to bet fifty munny that nothing will happen?" Gekigami said watching the others who were betting. The others just nodded in agreement. "All right then I'm in." he said.
"I don't know…" Yuffie said. "Something might happen, you never know…" she said placing 50 for the bet that said 'yes'.
"Yeah well Amaterasu's our sister, so we know how she'll act." Tachigami said feeling confident with the bet.
"So then, are all bets closed?" Yuffie said looking back at the people on her table.
Reeve moved his money. "Hold on I'm going for the other one…" he said placing the area that said 'no'.
"Reeve, that's the third time!" Yuffie said shaking her head furiously.
They were sitting at an area close to the park, where they got a good view of the two teenagers.
"I smell money!" Yuffie said laughing. "Are you sure you don't want to change?" she asked the others.
"No…" the siblings said throwing death glares at the ninja.
A m a t e r a s u
Riku placed an earpiece on his ear, and I put one on mine, he pulled out the little mp3 player. He pressed the play button and I heard a familiar song come on. He ended up pulling me a bit closer to him, and well it felt kind of nice.
"Hey that's 'This Love'," I said, taking Riku's cue to start dancing.
The song was like a slow ballad, which was something I liked, and it really did capture the mood of the whole thing. I rested my head against his shoulder, an I could feel some strands of hair gently touch my neck.
I closed my eyes and felt another memory come back.
"It's a slow song, come on it'll be fun." The young teenager said. He pulled me up to my feet as I was sitting on a bench.
"Xehanort, I really don't think we should…" I said looking at the area we were in. "I'm not a big crowd person."
"Then just pretend no one's here." He said somehow taking me deeper into the crowd. "Just trust me, all right?"
"I have a feeling this is going to be burned into me brain," I said exaggerating the last word.
"Stop complaining, Ammi," back then he was the only person who called me that sometimes. "It's your day off and you're going to spend it dancing."
"My feet are going to…" the only thing I could remember was something soft brush up against my lips, and it was a feeling I knew I would never forget.
This was only the beginning of the Festival of Light, and I really wished it would last forever, but that was impossible. I just enjoyed dancing with Riku, and I knew he was enjoying it too.
"Hey, Ammi?" he whispered.
"What?"
"Do you remember when you asked me if I thought Amaterasu was pretty?" I could feel my cheeks get a bit red.
"You don't really have to answer that…"
"Well…"
"Riku…"
"I'm just being honest, I mean come on…"
"Fine…" I sighed for a moment knowing I couldn't shake off the curiosity. "So, did you think she was pretty?"
"Before or after I knew it was you?"
"Both…"
"You really want me to answer?" I nodded slightly and he smiled at me for a moment. "Let's just say that after I found out it was you, I thought you were more than just being pretty."
"Why the heck does that remind of something from a movie?" I asked pausing for a moment.
"You know we're having a pretty good moment…" Riku said trying to get me to go with the flow.
"You know the music has stopped, so you can let go of me…" I said trying to get him a bit ruffled up.
"Ammi…" he started to whine slightly.
I sighed and gave up pulling away from his embrace. We ended up sitting against the trunk of the tree, and a lot of things were running in and out of my head.
I thought back to Cloud and Aerith. I knew those two were having a good time. Kairi and Sora of course those two are having fun. The others from HBRC were having fun too, they always found ways to entertain themselves.
"I have something to tell you Riku…" I said looking at him for a moment. He looked back at me, and he was ready to listen. "Do you know someone by the name of Xehanort?"