This will be a weird chapter. Mimi, I thank you for that comment on Riku's feet. Otherwise this chapter would not have been possible in all of its… well, glory. Ill be at the beach for the next few days, but I' m bringing my laptop so I' ll be able to type at night. I do not own any of these characters. Or Kingdom Hearts.
Chapter 24: Smells Like Teenage Spirit
Xion slowly began to wake up. The first thing she became aware of was that she was snuggling against something very warm and comfortable. The second thing she noticed is that this warm and comfortable object happened to smell like cheese that had been left in a half broken refrigerator for a year in a cellar filled with mold next to a rotten egg dump after being sprayed by a skunk covered in garbage. The third thing she noticed is that her eyes were watering from that horrible odor. And the fourth thing she noticed is that this rather odorous object happened to be a pair of feet. Then she noticed a fifth thing, that she had been using these feet as a pillow during her sleep and that they kind of sort of had her drool on them. The final thing she noticed is that all of this noticing was making her kind of queasy, as in stomach churning head spinning weak in the knees queasy. She somehow managed to disentangle herself from the warm person she had been snuggling against without waking that person up and bolted towards the bathroom.
One emptying of the contents of her stomach into a rather nasty looking toilet later, she unsteadily made her way back to the couch to see who else had been sleeping on it with her. All she needed was a glimpse of the person's silver-white hair to know that it was Riku. A strange feeling ran down her body, making her already rubbery legs feel even more elastic and wobbly. All of a sudden, she began to feel light headed along with the already existing dizziness, and then the nausea returned with a vengeance. She ran back to the poor battered toilet for a second round of vomiting. She had had no idea that there was anything left in her stomach to vomit up, yet somehow she managed to do it. The janitorial staff on the Raimon can quite vividly attest to that fact. She kind of missed the toilet this time.
By the time she made it back to the couch the second time, she felt like she was about to collapse. However, instead of being dumb and collapsing onto the floor, she decided to collapse into the metal folding chair next to a half awake Zexion. The loud clang of her impacting into the chair jarred Zexion into full consciousness. He jumped a little ways into the air out of surprise, looked around for a couple of seconds, then saw Xion collapsed in the chair and smiled.
"Judging by the look on your face and the way you are holding your stomach, I'm going to assume that you got a smell of the odorous monstrosities that we call Riku's feet." He grinned, feeling as if the mental fog that had plagued him for the past few days had suddenly been lifted. Xion nodded yes, feeling like a crap sandwich that had been left out on a tarmac parking lot for a few hours in one hundred degree heat.
"I'm surprised that you lasted the entire night using those wretched smelling things as a pillow. Whenever rats got into my library, I usually bribed Riku to walk around for an hour in there barefoot. What rats were still among the living afterwards came crawling out begging for mercy. You must really like him." Said Zexion, smiling. Xion responded by groaning a rather load groan that sounded like "shut the hell up".
"How many times did you throw up after breathing that miasma?" asked Zexion, curious. Xion lifted up an arm and raised two fingers, then let the arm go lax and fall down on top of her with a thud. Zexion chuckled at the sight of it.
"Wow. Usually people throw up three or four at the very least. You must have a stomach of unusual strength. I'm impressed. The only other person to accomplish this fete has been Sora." Zexion again chuckled. Xion looked like she was about to mumble something in response when they heard the sound of Riku stirring on the couch. They turned and saw him sitting up, looking around through bleary eyes. Then his gaze fell on Xion.
"What the hell happened to you?" he sleepily asked, noting her rather poor condition at this point in time.
"She used your nauseous feet as pillows for the entire night." Responded Zexion, smiling a sarcastic little smile that pissed off Riku.
"Number one, wouldn't it be nauseating, not nauseous? Second, are my feet really that disgusting?" asked Riku.
"Number one, no it is nauseous. Look it up in the dictionary. And number two, yes they really are. Look at the poor girl!" said Zexion, pointing at Xion, who was holding her stomach and groaning, looking quite miserable.
"My feet caused that?" Riku said in a sorrowful wonder.
"Yes, yes they did. Remember when I used to use your feet for rat control at the library?" Zexion asked, an amused glint in his eyes. He was clearly enjoying all of this.
"…Yes I do. … Wait… why aren't you having the same reaction, you and your sensitive nose?" asked Riku, curious.
"Naminé cast a spell on me so that I cannot smell your putrid feet."' He said, smiling. They heard a metal clanging noise, and they turned to see Xion attempting to get out of her chair. She almost made it too, but a wave of light headed dizziness overcame her and she collapsed onto the floor, clutching her stomach with one hand and her head with the other. Riku ran over to her, concerned.
"Are you all right?" he asked, leaning done over her, worry
"… No…" she said, moaning.
"It looks like she has thrown up everything that she has eaten over the past forty eight hours." Said Zexion, his grin faltering for the first time since he woke up.
"… Did the smell of my feet really affect you this badly?" Riku asked, feeling horribly guilty.
"… I think so…" said Xion in a weak voice as her dizziness caused the world to continue to spin around her as if she was on a merry go round gone horribly, horribly wrong. Or right, depending on a person's tolerance for nausea.
"I'm really sorry." Said Riku in an apologetic voice, worry and guilt apparent on his face.
"Wait… I have an idea…" said Zexion, then he ran off down the corridor.
"Its fine… just why do they smell that bad?" she asked weakly, a faint smile on her face.
"Well, that time Sora got really sick on my feet might have something to do with it." Grinned Riku, then his expression turned rather more serious and darker.
" An Aborigine shaman cast a spell on my feet after I started to mock his beliefs. I started saying that true love doesn't exist and he cursed my feet to smell until I found true love." Riku said, smiling a sad smile as he knelt over Xion. He was lost in thought, however, and didn't notice the sorrow and heartbreak in her eyes.
"What about now? … Do you believe in love now?" she asked, somehow feeling even more dizzy and lightheaded than before. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she felt some sort of odd emotion that she had never felt before, that sort of hopeful fear that any person who has ever had feelings for somebody would know. Why did she feel this way?
"… I don't know. I really don't know. I used to… but that was before my mother left, leaving my father a heartbroken wreck. After that… I just couldn't believe in it. I thought my mom loved my dad, but apparently I was horribly wrong. I feel dead on the inside, as if there is something missing inside me. As if I'm not… human. … who could ever feel anything for a broken man like me, who can't feel anything in return?" Tears started to well in Riku's eyes. Suddenly, Xion's mind cleared of its fogginess, though she still felt lightheaded and dizzy and all of that horrible crap. However, she knew now what she had to do.
She motioned for Riku to lean in closer with her hand, and when he did so she wrapped her rubbery feeling arms around him and pulled him in close. She saw his beautiful tear laden eyes widen in shock as his faced approached hers, felt his warm breath on her skin, causing her to shiver slightly.
"I would" she whispered loud enough for him to hear, then kissed him. An electric thrill went through her body, and the lightheadedness and dizziness all of a sudden gained a whole new connotation. That nervous fear she had felt was gone. For about a second, Riku struggled, then he relaxed and he began to kiss her back.
They were still kissing when Zexion reentered the room a couple of moments later, holding a tray piled with pancakes and a three glasses of water in his arms. He grinned when he saw the two of them making out. He gently sat the tray of pancakes down next to the pair, who were too preoccupied with each other's tongues to really notice anything else. Then Zexion remembered that Xion had thrown up earlier and his grin sort of turned into an "ewwwww, that is nasty" expression. His stomach began to feel a bit unsettled as he imagined how that must feel. He made a hasty retreat towards the bathroom.
As he left the room, Xion and Riku parted lips and just stared at each other for a couple of seconds, an awkward stare that was made all the more awkward by the condition that Xion was in and by the awkward silence that also happened to fill the room. Riku decided to break it first.
"What the hell was that?" he asked, shocked at what had just happened.
"It was me saying that I have feelings for you." She said, blushing. All of a sudden the fear was back, and with a vengeance. How would he react? What was going to happen? … Will he hate her?
" … why?" He asked after a moment, honest curiosity in his eyes. Her eyes widened in surprise. That was an unexpected reaction.
"Cause… you' re the first person in a long while who's actually cared about me. Who's actually tried to be my friend. Everybody else thinks I' m a hyper freak of genetic manipulation. So that was my way of saying thank you, of saying that I would have feelings for you, and that I do." She said, smiling a slight nervous smile. After seeing his still shocked expression, her smile turned from nervous to sad.
"Not that you would want my affection. I'm sorry. I never should have done that… never should have said anything at all. I thought of myself and not you. Why would you want me? Of course you wouldn't want me I'm sorry. I…" by this time, tears were beginning to stream down her face and the dizziness and lightheadedness had gone from a minor annoyance to the point of an actual pain that she felt deep inside her heart. Then Riku interrupted her by kissing her.
This second kiss was a lot more passionate than the first, and happened to commence just as a slightly green in the face Zexion was walking back into the room. He took one look at the passionate couple before him and ran straight back the way he came to the bathroom, where he proceeded to vacate his stomach of its contents for the second time that day.
Meanwhile, Xion's mind was a whirlwind of confused emotions and physical pleasure combined with the always present dizziness and lightheadedness. What could this mean? Why did he kiss her? Does he actually like her? After about a minute, their lips finally parted.
"… To quote, what the hell was that?" she asked, smiling a happy confused smile.
"… That was me saying thank you, and that … I do want you. That if I'm ever going to love somebody, it's going to be you. Ive never met anybody so… full of life before. You' re amazing. Already I feel something that ive never felt before. And im feeling it for you. " He said, smiling. She just laid there, shocked. She had no idea what to think except Did he just say what I think he said? Did he really say that if he is going to love anybody, it will be me? After a minute of stunned silence from Xion, he noted the pancakes next to them.
"Look, there is food. Shall we eat? I' m guessing this was the cure that Zexion was referring to before. You look starved. " he asked, concerned.
"… Do I really mean that much to you?" She asked , stunned.
"… Yes. Yes you do. Now let's eat! " he said, smiling. They began to dig in to the food, chatting about life while they were at it, getting to know each other and, well, falling in love.
About five minutes later, a janitor found Zexion passed out in the bathroom, clutching a toilet covered in vomit. He was moaning something about kissing and vomit and very smelly feet. The janitor dragged him to a nurses station, then went to get some more vomit cleaning supplies from inventory. He used up his stock for the day on that god awful mess in the woman's bathroom about a half an hour ago. Why the hell did everybody have to get sick on his watch? He needed a raise for having to deal with this kind of shit.
That's it for this chapter. … Not sure what the hell the next one will be about. It will be up sometime next week. Not sure when. Till next time, I bid you farewell. And any new readers, can you guys please review? You don't have too, but it would be appreciated. Iz needz thez feedz backz. Well, adios.